Showstopper

If you haven’t driven through downtown lately you should definitely do so just to see the facelift that has been given to the old Gaither buildings.

Building owner, Keith Hagler, got a façade grant from the Municipal Development District (MDD) and hired Friendship Painting to complete the work. And what a great job they did.

The building’s glory had faded, but it is now a showstopper for downtown Rockdale.

Gary Greisbach, with the Rockdale Downtown Association (RDA), deserves a lot of credit for helping to make this happen because he was the person who contacted Hagler to let him know about the façade grants and helped him write the grant.

And your own building can receive a façade grant too. The MDD has recently changed the eligibility criteria for the grants and expanded this opportunity outside of the downtown area to the city of Rockdale and its extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The grants match the business owner’s contributions dollar for dollar up to $10,000. If you wanted to spend $10,000 on fixing up your building’s façade, if you receive a grant your total expenditures could be $20,000 in improvements.

The MDD has three primary goals in offering these loans:

• Revitalize and improve the appearance of Rockdale buildings to positively impact the aesthetics, marketability and perception of the City of Rockdale.

• Serve as a catalyst for continued private sector investment through visible improvements.

• Offer the private sector an incentive program to invest in Rockdale buildings.

Some of the things the grants will cover are signs (new, repair, replace, removal), awnings, lighting, paint, removal or replacement of inappropriate or incompatible exterior finishes or materials, reconfiguring entrances, door and window replacement or repair, exterior cleaning, historical architectural elements and more.

The Rockdale MDD website has recently been updated to include all the requirements. Visit www.rockdalemdd.org for a copy of the criteria as well as a façade application.

Congratulations to Mr. Hagler, Friendship Painting and the Rockdale MDD for working in partnership to give a historic Rockdale building a beautiful facelift and making our downtown shine.—K.W.C.