Buying and restoring a historic property in downtown can be daunting. The rules and regulations of a historic district are confusing and the resources available to downtown stakeholders are not often obvious. The guides below were created by the Denison Main Street program to make it a little bit easier for property owners, businesses, and realtors to work downtown.
Denison - Downtown Stakeholders' Guides
- For Business Owners - Practical Guide for Business Owners in Downtown [.pdf]
- For Real Estate - Guide to Downtown Realty [.pdf]
- For Property Owners - Property Maintenance Guide [.pdf]
Ennis - 10 Tips for Business Success in Downtown
This short and sweet guide explains how to be a downtown success in two pages. Note that the guide is specific to Ennis, but incorporates tips that can be utilized by all small businesses.
Elgin - Navigating Historic Renovation and Assistance Programs Guide
This guide provides a step by step explanation of the local grant programs and the state/federal tax credit programs, which have been wildly successful in Downtown Elgin.
Sherman - Project Jumpstart the Heart
In their first year as a Main Street city, Sherman created an extensive incentive package to promote and show that they are committed to "jumpstarting" the heart of their town, the historic downtown core. The package includes:
- The Historic Building Restoration and Improvement Grant Program, which provides 25 percent matching funds toward the redevelopmentof historic structures, up to $25,000.
- The Downtown Occupancy Incentive, which reimburses new business owners for as much as 50 percent of their rent or mortgage payments during their first year of operation, up to $6,250.
- The Fee Waiver Incentive, which provides an exemption from all city fees for developers of new construction or renovation in the Central Business District.
The three programs are designed to compliment each other, and are not exclusive. However, each program requires a separate application, and
acceptance into one program does not guarantee acceptance into another program.
The full incentive package can be found here and a short presentation explaining the purpose of the program is here.
Waxahachie Downtown Incentives Guide
Waxahachie has many downtown incentives including tax exemptions, fire monitoring program, facade grant, TIRZ financing, Chapter 380 Agreements, and other development incentives. This short, two page handout explains each program and who to contact.
Jacksonville, Florida - D.I.G. It! Guide to Downtown Street Construction
The Downtown Jacksonville went through a huge, phased street project over about 5 years. They published a guide (Downtown Information Guide = "DIG It" book) for property and business owners for each phase of the project with copies of the plans, descriptions, and timelines, plus important contact numbers for all involved, suggestions for how to communicate with their customers about the work, and other information about things to do before, during and after the work. This guide was downloadable at the time on the City's website. During the biggest part of the project, they held monthly meetings for all property and business owners to get updates and briefings from the engineers and city. In addition, they supplied the construction office space, so the engineers were not only able to utilize their internet and facilities (keeping project costs down), but were available for any questions/messages people had for them.
Download an example guide here.