St. Paul issues $3.7 million in grants for local businesses and organizations

St. Paul recently announced over $3.7 million in grants to neighborhood and cultural projects, focusing heavily on projects that emphasize diversity.

The city’s Sales Tax Revitalization (STAR) grant program has supported improvement and cultural projects in the city for 30 years. The annual funding comes from the city’s half-cent sales tax.

There are two programs within the STAR grant: Neighborhood STAR and Cultural STAR.

Neighborhood STAR allocated $2.6 million for capital projects this year. The program received 113 eligible applications, and 59 projects were selected to receive funding, many of those going toward small businesses, according to Neighborhood STAR Coordinator Erin Lewis. The amount each project received is listed in a St. Paul financial analysis. Neighborhood STAR projects this year include anything from LED light upgrades to finishing patios.

“It’s nice when we can come in as a part of bigger funding that needs to happen,” Lewis said in an interview. “But it’s also nice when we are, like, the thing that helps a small business put up a sign that looks really nice instead of a banner.”

Previous Neighborhood STAR projects are detailed on a map on St. Paul’s website.

Cultural STAR focuses on three categories: organizational development, capital projects and special projects related to the arts. Before approving the grants, final recommendations are made. This year, the program awarded $1.1 million to 68 projects out of 128 eligible applications.

Projects funded include a new soundboard at Twin Cities PBS and initiatives by Ballet Company Laboratory to make ballet more accessible to diverse communities, Program Coordinator Jessica Larson Johnston said.

“All 68 projects are really amazing that are coming out of Cultural STAR,” Larson Johnston said. “It’s exciting to just have so many different sorts of areas of culture and art identified to celebrate.”

Cultural STAR funding is primarily directed toward downtown St. Paul, with 80% of the budget allocated for projects in the downtown area. The remaining 20% is designated for neighborhoods and communities outside downtown.

Both programs emphasize diversity in their funding. In the Neighborhood STAR program, 48% of the funded projects are women-owned or led, and the majority of the projects are through organizations owned or led by people of color, according to Lewis. Similarly, more than half of the funding for Cultural STAR went to women-led projects and 30% went to organizations led by people of color, Larson Johnston said.

Racial minority residents make up approximately half of St. Paul’s population, according to U.S. census data.

“We’re so fortunate to have so much interest and have the opportunity to do this in St Paul,” Lewis said. “We wish we could fund everyone, and we just never have quite enough.”

Grace Henrie is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.