Three More Downtown Buildings Getting Help

Three more downtown buildings, two on Main Street and one on Fayetteville Street, will be getting Downtown Façade Improvement grants totaling $11,000 to help improve their looks.

The Downtown Development Association (DDA) awarded the grants Tuesday to HTR Commercial Real Estate, Main Street Jewelers and a property owner who hopes to attract a new business to a vacant downtown building.

“These are highly visible projects and will make a big difference in the appearance of downtown Clayton,” said Jeme Avent, vice chair of the DDA Design Committee.

The real estate company is moving into a historic house at 104 N. Fayetteville Street and wants the funds to help pay for renovation costs. The house, built about 1895, is a contributing building in the proposed historic district, and the new owners are taking care to keep the architectural integrity of the building intact as they make improvements. The façade improvements include the cleaning and painting of the exterior of the building; stripping, sanding, and glazing the original wood windows and glass; and upper front porch repairs, including the replacement of wooden porch railings and spindles with matching materials and style. The main exterior of the building will be painted a light yellow with Navajo White trim. Window sashes will be painted a light green. The upper and lower porch ceilings will be painted Seafoam. The costs of the improvements exceed the grant's matching cap of $5,000.

The jewelry store at 236 E. Main Streets wants a new awning. This building is also a contributing structure in the proposed historic district. The grant will help pay for a replacement awning that will be black with gold trim and lettering. The awning will be a standard design, which has a more shallow design than the existing awning, providing a more traditional look and a more open visual of the storefront. The owners recently painted the building but not as part of the façade grant application. The grant will be for approximately $1,000.

The commercial building at 104 Main Street will get a facelift. The east side of the block building will be painted a light brown (Camelback) with trim in Navajo White. The existing doors toward the rear of the building will be Privilege Green and the gutters, downspouts and brackets will be a bronze color. Property owners will reopen the boarded windows on the side of the building and the front awning will be removed to open the front. A projecting sign with exterior lighting will be installed above the existing overhang and address letters will be installed on the front brick portion of the east side of the building. The existing brickwork will be cleaned. Some minor landscaping will also occur in the front area of the building. The costs of these improvements also exceed the grant's matching cap of $5,000. The owners hope to attract a retail use in this building when it becomes available in November.

In addition to the Downtown Façade Improvement Grant program, the Town of Clayton also offers a shared-cost program, the Downtown Improvements Project which helps property owners remove pole-supported sidewalk canopies in front of their building. The removal of these canopies will make the storefronts under them more visible and can improve sales. Another benefit is an increase in usable sidewalk space.

A third incentive is the Clayton Downtown Redevelopment Incentive Grant which provides an incentive for new downtown construction on existing vacant land. The grant is based on the value of the property prior to and after development. Information and applications for these programs are available online at http://www.townofclaytonnc.org/Business/Downtown_BusinessDevelopment.aspx.