St. Paul to offer financial help to beautify business districts

St. Paul is rolling out grants this summer to help neighborhood businesses spruce up their storefronts, and to fund murals and other public art to make local nodes more vibrant.

The money comes as construction worries weigh on neighborhood businesses, with seasonal road work ramping up, along with St. Paul’s sales tax-funded street reconstruction projects.

“Council continues to prioritize the investment in our commercial corridors,” said Ward 7 Council Member Cheniqua Johnson, during a meeting about the program. The funds, she said, “can ultimately support St. Paulites and businesses across the city.”

The business grants, a total of $1.4 million from local sales taxes, will be used for storefront improvements and projects that benefit a whole commercial area, like murals and other public art. Funds can also support businesses through road construction, such as the work going on along streets like Grand Avenue, Robert Street and Arcade Street.

Minneapolis has long had a similar program, Great Streets Façade Improvement Program, but some say it has not always lived up to the promise to help struggling businesses. That program, in place since 2008, functions much like the program in St. Paul will, with funds granted to a set of designated organizations to distribute in their communities.

In St. Paul, the 18 designated commercial corridors that will receive funds include major streets across the city, from Ford Parkway in the southwest corner of St. Paul, to White Bear Avenue in the northeast. Downtown St. Paul businesses are also eligible.

Organizations with a history of working with businesses in each corridor — mostly district councils and local business groups — will each get a set amount of money to spend on projects in each commercial corridor.

City leaders have expressed strong support for the grants, with Mayor Melvin Carter mentioning the program in last week’s State of the City address.

In Minneapolis, Kristel Porter, executive director of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition, said the money is not always accessible to businesses that could most use the aid.

The money in Minneapolis comes as a reimbursement of up to 50% of the expense of a storefront improvement, Porter said. If a business cannot pay its share up front, they cannot get the reimbursement, though she said there have been private grants and other programs to front money to business owners.

A city of Minneapolis spokesperson said in an email that businesses can also use grants or loans to cover their share of the cost.

“The façade grant program is one of many ways we support the city’s commercial corridors and the small businesses in them,” city spokesperson Jess Olstad said in an email.

Unlike in St. Paul, some Minneapolis neighborhoods also have overlapping organizations that receive the funds — meaning multiple pools of money — and these areas of overlap are concentrated in south and northeast Minneapolis.

The West Broadway Coalition is the only group in north Minneapolis actively distributing the funds, Porter said, and so there is less money in her neighborhood.

“South Minneapolis and Northeast have these different entities that have capacity that are able to apply,” Porter said. “The entire North Side has only access to $60,000 for this program because we’re the only one applying.”

A city spokesperson said there are two other groups that have been approved to distribute funds in the area.

Still, Porter said, it’s often the most well-connected and civically engaged business owners who are able to jump on the annual funding.

“They’re going to eat up the funds before others are able to access it, before we’re able to help others fill out their applications,” Porter said.