March 28, 2024

Main Street Iowa Challenge grants announced

Iowa Economic Development Authority announced Osceola Chamber Main Street is to be awarded a Main Street Iowa Challenge grant in the amount of $65,000 for the O’Hair building project located at 130 S. Fillmore St. in Osceola.

Pat and MacKenzie O’Hair represented the JSP Investments at the event.

“This grant is just another example of the prosperity and drive shown by Osceola,” said Chance Porter, president of Osceola Chamber Main Street. “We are having a lot of great work being done in 2014 and we hope this continues to inspire growth and confidence in our downtown and our community as a whole.”

A total of $951,000 in Main Street Iowa Challenge grants will be awarded to fourteen Iowa communities through a fund administered by the Iowa Downtown Resource Center and Main Street Iowa. The funding will be distributed in the form of grants to the selected Main Street programs. The estimated total project cost of the fourteen projects is more than $3.6 million.

Representatives from the Iowa Economic Development Authority and Main Street Iowa made the announcement during a special check presentation ceremony held at the Des Moines Botanical Center. The grants will benefit local improvement projects such as façade improvement and restoration, stabilizing buildings devastated by fire, upper floor rehabilitation and stabilizing and rehabilitating severely deteriorated buildings.

“These challenge grants have proven to be catalysts for the revitalization of Iowa’s historic Main Streets” said IEDA Director Debi Durham. “Reinvesting in our traditional commercial districts is good business. It’s good for our economy and good for our state. These projects will bring new businesses and new residents to our downtown districts.”

“Each project must provide at least a dollar for dollar cash match” said Main Street Iowa State Coordinator Michael Wagler. “Overall, these projects will leverage almost three times that amount of investment.”

The Challenge Grant program is funded through an appropriation from the Iowa Legislature. Since the first appropriation in 2002, approximately $4.9 million in federal funds has leveraged more than $36 million in private reinvestment in 83 projects in 41 Main Street Iowa districts.