The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) awarded $925,000 in Main Street Iowa Challenge Grants to 10 communities around the state.
Mount Vernon was the recipient of one of those grants, with Meridith Hoffman, Darin and Jamie Luneckas MV Brews project to revitalize the old Mount Vernon Fire Station receiving $100,000.
In a video on the project, Hoffmann noted this grant will help address the roof, HVAC, insulation and tuckpointing on the old fire station, which has been vacant in the uptown since 2011.
“These first improvements need to be made to stabilize the building moving forward,” Hoffman said.
The grant for this $100,000 will go a huge way towards one of the major projects that need to be tackled in the building. Michael Wagel with IEDA reminded many people that many projects will see unexpected expenses on their projects through the process, and IEDA will work with teams as those come up.
“It’s absolutely huge for MV Brews to receive this type of funding from the IEDA,” Hoffman said. “It was a very competitive grant program, and the assistance from Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development group president Joe Jennison and the committee in the work on this were beneficial.”
As with all challenge grants, the recipients have two years from the date the contract is signed to complete the project, and they have to put in roughly double the amount of the grant received into the building. This year, the IEDA requires having a contractor on the project selected and identified before the grant money is received.
Joe Jennison said he and a committee work on selecting the projects that will represent the community for the challenge grant program, and there were several applicants locally for consideration for the challenge grant.
“It’s a project I’m excited to see what is done to revitalize this building in our uptown,” Jennison said.
Future phases are looking at creating a restaurant and event space in uptown Mount Vernon.
“We want this to be a destination for the town of Mount Vernon,” Hoffman said. “For us, the importance has always been on keeping the current fire station, as opposed to tearing that building down and bring new life to that space.”
“The Main Street Iowa Challenge grants help us revitalize and reinvest in our traditional commercial districts, which is good business,” said IEDA and Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham. “It’s good for our economy and good for our state. These projects will bring new businesses and new residents to our downtown districts.”
The grants are administered through IEDA’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center and Main Street Iowa programs. The funding will be distributed in the form of matching grants to the selected Main Street programs. The estimated total cost of these 10 projects is over $3.5 million.
“Each of these projects represents growing momentum for downtown and community revitalization,” said Michael Wagler, state coordinator for the Main Street Iowa program. “This investment in catalytic projects across Iowa will have a significant economic impact and help strengthen local creative placemaking efforts.”
Since the first Challenge Grants were awarded in 2002, about $14.6 million in funds have leveraged more than $68.3 million in further investment.
Mount Vernon, according to Jennison, has been a recipient of eight challenge grants since the program began in 2002, most at the $100,000 level.