New Facade Improvement Grants Announced

The proprietors of B&B Copier Sales & Service accept congratulations on their Façade Improvement Grant award from Old South Baton Rouge Partnership Executive Director Kevin Boyd.

BATON ROUGE (February 3, 2009)— Five Old South Baton Rouge businesses have been named recipients of Façade Improvement Grants that will help them enhance the curb appeal of their offices or storefronts.

The grant recipients are:

• Odell S. Williams “Now & Then” Museum of African-American History – 538 South Boulevard
• B&B Copier Sales & Service – 1642 Thomas H. Delpit Dr.
• Cheap-O-Mart – 1306 Thomas H. Delpit Dr.
• Culture Inc. – 450 Oklahoma St.
• Iron Stone LLC (Jerry’s Apartments) – 456 W. Roosevelt St.

This is the second round of Façade Improvement Grants. The first round was announced in May of last year. For this second round of the program, faculty and students from LSU’s Office of Community Design and Development and the Schools of Architecture and Landscape Architecture will provide technical and design assistance to award recipients.

“This funding will allow us to do some critical renovation to our new location,” said Sadie Roberts-Joseph, founder and curator of the “Now & Then” Museum of African American History. “African-American history is the history of America and we’ve been teaching the community about it for seven years now. This grant will go a long way to helping us continue that mission.”

The Façade Improvement Grant program is an initiative of the Old South Baton Rouge Partnership, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and it targets businesses located in the Old South Baton Rouge area. This competitive grant program is part of a continuing project started by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to revive Old South Baton Rouge (OSBR), the historic community between LSU and downtown. The grants are funded by Capital One, Chase, the East Baton Rouge Mortgage Finance Authority, Fannie Mae, and NeighborWorks America, and they are administered by the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) with the Old South Baton Rouge Partnership. Grants to improve the facades will match up to $5,000 for one-story buildings and $7,500 for two-story buildings.

Recipients of the first round of Façade Improvement Grant funding included Marlene’s Hair and Nails and Ingram’s Fabricated Filters on Thomas H. Delpit Drive, and Inga’s Subs and Salads on West Chimes Street.

The revival of Old South Baton Rouge began earlier in the decade with an $18.6 million federal HOPE VI grant to replace aging public housing projects with single-family homes that are integrated into the community. CPEX, which provides planning support to communities across Louisiana, is working with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and partners to prepare land for redevelopment, while the OSBR Partnership is a community nonprofit charged with executing the strategic plan for the neighborhood. The East Baton Rouge Mortgage Finance Authority helps to stimulate homeownership by providing attractive mortgages and grant funds to improve inner city neighborhoods.