SAN BENITO — Ric Madrigal is turning to the city’s Economic Development Corporation’s expanding grant program to help give his late mother’s strip mall a big make-over.
Now, he’s applying for a $10,000 grant to help fund the hefty job of renovating Dulce Madrigal’s shopping plaza off Business 77.
“It’s a wonderful program to improve the city,” the longtime insurance man said.
For about five years, the EDC restricted its grant program to downtown businesses as part of a plan aimed at revitalizing the area marred by rows of empty storefronts, remnants of the city’s heyday as northern Cameron County’s commercial hub about 80 years ago.
Last week, city commissioners agreed to expand the program to give businesses across town a chance to tap into its $10,000 grants aimed at helping to spruce up their storefronts.
The move opens up the program to more businesses.
While the downtown area includes 89 shops, about 420 businesses operate outside its boundaries.
“We definitely need to address all areas of the city as far as economic growth,” City Commissioner Rene Garcia, who sits on the EDC board, said. “It provides an avenue for other businesses to take advantage of the program and set up shop.”
Businessman’s renovation plans
To take part in the program, Madrigal plans to match the EDC’s grant to help fund what he believes will become a renovation project carrying a price tag of “tens of thousands of dollars.”
“It has sentimental value,” he said. “It’s a great little plaza. It’s fully rented. I see its potential, bringing businesses in. My mother built it. It was hard to manage in her older age. It had deteriorated. It was in pretty dilapidated condition.”
So, he’s mulling whether to fund a stucco or siding face-lift.
“I’m looking for the most cost-effective way of renovating it,” Madrigal said. “Stucco would put it back to its original condition. I’m looking for something more durable. I just want to do it right.”
Second EDC program to expand
The grant program becomes the EDC’s second initiative to expand across town in the last year.
Last year, officials expanded a program offering $5,000 rent subsidies to businesses outside the downtown area.
During that time, the program offered rent subsidies to 15 downtown shops and four businesses outside the area, Rebeca Castillo, the EDC’s executive director, said.
Last year, the EDC spent about $54,000 of the $76,000 earmarked to fund its programs offering rent subsidies and grants aimed at sprucing up storefronts.
So there’s money to offer businesses outside the downtown area, Commissioners Carol Lynn Sanchez and Pete Galvan argued during the Nov. 16 meeting.
“We need to have programs available throughout the city,” Garcia said.
