Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato on Thursday announced more than $4 million in funding directed toward revitalizing neighborhood business districts across the county this year through a new program called Main Streets Allegheny.
“This isn’t about putting up additional barriers or red tape,” Innamorato said. “This is about soliciting good ideas and putting money behind those good ideas, and quickly.”
Main Streets Allegheny offers different types of grants. Some can be used for things like paying outside consultants to help assess a business district. Others can be used to fix up a facade, pay for new public art or host a big party in the street. The program also provides grants and loans for small businesses in those districts.
There are about 45 municipalities within Allegheny County that have a walkable business district, according to Lauren Connolly, director of economic development at Allegheny County.
“We know that those districts have evolved over time as shopping patterns and lifestyles have changed,” Connolly said. “The intent of this program is to meet communities where they are.”
For some districts, that might mean figuring out what their vacancy rate is or coming up with a plan that’s the right scale for their business district. Others might not have the money available for a block party on the main street or a bigger regional event like Open Streets in the City of Pittsburgh.
“This is totally new,” Connolly said. “[The county] has never offered a pool of funds to advance projects at this scale within business districts — capital funding and events funding. And it really doesn’t exist otherwise.”
The state of Pennsylvania has a complimentary program called Main Street Matters with a $20 million budget across the state. In Allegheny County, places such as Munhall and Mt. Oliver boroughs have received grants through the state program to spruce up their downtowns.
The county’s program is able to fund projects at a smaller scale than the state program and can be used as a match for the state funding or additional investment, according to Connolly.
Main Streets Allegheny builds off of prior community block grant programs and gets its funding from those block grants as well as county capital funds and from hotel tax and tourism funds. Municipalities in Allegheny County can start applying for some of these grants, such as those going toward community events and festivals, right away.
Some of the grants, such as those for funding physical improvements such as murals or lighting, don’t apply to neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh because there are already similar programs in place through organizations such as the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh and VisitPittsburgh.
“This is to help communities fund the professional services, the barricade, the things they need to do to get an event up and running or to get a project off the ground,” Connolly said. “It was intentionally designed to fill a gap.”