Downtown banks on new incentives

Businesswoman Tami Boss was the first applicant the Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency board approved to benefit from its revived "Downtown Advantage Program," said Pete Pollard, executive director.

The CRA board voted to reinstate the program in November, which it last offered in the early 1990s.

It provides financial assistance to new tenants in the form of a three-way partnership among the CRA, a landlord and a tenant, to attract businesses to the empty storefronts.

The CRA provides the tenant 50-percent financial assistance for interior improvements to build out a suitable location for its needs.

With a $5,000 reimbursement cap, the money comes from property tax revenues collected within the CRA district.

"The landlords are inclined to offer a like amount in the form of a rent subsidy over the term of the lease," Pollard said.

The program requires a minimum two-year lease agreement, he said, and the reimbursement is paid out of the agency's $100,000 Development Incentive line item in the CRA budget.

"The lease-hold improvements become the property of the landlord," Pollard said.

The program applies not only to empty storefronts around the downtown Circle, but also any empty storefront within the CRA district.

The CRA board voted Monday to approve Boss' application for the program. CRA Chairman Gene Brenner declared a conflict, as he is the landlord. Commissioner Art Harriman was absent from the meeting.

"Gene left the room and didn't enter into the conversation at all," Pollard said.

Boss and her friend Danny Poole were busy Tuesday morning dressing up her new consignment shop, Still Chic Boutique, located at 112 N. Ridgewood Drive.

She plans for an opening date in early February.

"I'll have a more definite date in a week or two," she said. "No later than the first weekend in February."

The address was formerly a photography studio. Boss said Brenner informed her about the program.

"That did definitely help me in the decision to go ahead and do this," she said. "I just had that much in funds. Without it, I'd be wiped out."

This way she will still have money in the bank to help her get through any tough times.

Her plans are for an upscale consignment shop.

"I want to create a unique shopping experience," she said. "I want to be a part of the rejuvenation of the downtown."

In keeping with their application, they were making "lease-hold" improvements, including painting, adding dressing rooms and renovating a bathroom, which are all reimbursable under the program.

Boss' grant totaled $3,921.47, which makes her 50-percent reimbursement of $1,960.75 from the CRA, said Pollard. She will receive an equal amount as a rent subsidy.

In other business, the CRA board also reviewed its Restaurant Incentive Program. The CRA has $100,000 budgeted for restaurant incentives. No business owner has applied for the grant, which was launched last year.

"Restaurants are our primary targets," said Pollard. "We want to attract two or three, a cluster, of restaurants that do lunch and dinner trade preferably."

Restaurants attract jobs and people, he said.

The incentive program would help finance a portion of electrical, plumbing and ADA improvements, as well as sprinklers and venting systems for restaurants in the CRA district.

For more information on the Downtown Advantage Program or the Restaurant Incentive Program, contact Pollard at 863-471-5104.