City Council to vote Dec. 1 on redistributing extra business-program money

Funds formerly used for $10,000 downtown starter business loans and the façade program will see their availability expanded if a proposal before Danville City Council passes Dec. 1.

It is proposed that the remaining funds from the Urban Development Action Grant be made available for use under a new incentive program called the Downtown Development Enhancement Program.

During the proposal’s first reading before City Council on Nov.17, City Manager Lyle Lacy said the program to restore the façades on downtown buildings had been “pretty well done.” The new program would expand how the funds can be used to attract businesses to downtown.

The first priority will be to attract what the Office of Economic Development is calling “job generators” — businesses that will employ a significant number of people with above-average salaries. Such businesses could qualify for loans or grants if they commit to staying downtown for at least seven years, as well as commit to specific job creation goals and capital investment within three years.

If those commitments are met, the company would not have to pay back the loans or grants. If they are not met, the company would have to repay proportional amounts of the grants or loans.

Other goals of the program are to attract upscale restaurants, unique eateries and “non-competing niche retailers” — retail outlets that will not compete directly with any other current business in Danville.

“We don’t want to hurt our existing retailers,” Anne Moore-Sparks, of the Office of Economic Development, said Thursday. She added that the program will not be available to any existing businesses looking to relocate within the city. “It has to be new.”

Moore-Sparks said recruitment was hampered “when the economy took a nosedive,” and expanding the program will help businesses with start-up costs in a tight lending environment.

The funds would be administered by Jeremy Stratton, director of the Office of Economic Development, though final approval of any grant or loan amount, and the terms of such agreements, would require the city manager to sign off on it.

Stratton said this program allows more leeway for amounts and terms, and each business’s application can be judged on a case-by-case basis for how much funding can be made available.

Stratton noted that he expects downtown to see revitalization when the White Mill project is done and it is occupied and attracts businesses to cater to those employees.

“I think the dynamics will change and people will want to be downtown,” Stratton said. “But it will be two or three years until the White Mill project is up, and we need to fill vacant spaces now.”

w Thibodeau is a staff writer for the Danville Register & Bee.