The Downtown Revitalization Grant is available to building owners and tenants in the target area which includes Main Street from the Subway to Greenwood Hts., and parts of North, Exchange, Sandusky, Kilbourne, Southwest & Northwest, Monroe, and Center Streets. The Grant offers building owners and tenants a 50% rebate on the first $50,000 of eligible interior and/or exterior building improvements with a rebate cap of $25,000 and a 100% rebate on the first $5,000 for architectural fees. That's a total of $30,000 of grant funds available for you building!

In the 1970's, the National Trust for Historical Preservation recognized that no matter the size of the city, historical commercial districts needed re-development help and created The Main Street approach to commercial district revitalization and opened the National Trust Main Street Center. The focus of this approach is to combine historic preservation with economic development to restore prosperity and vitality to downtowns and neighborhood business districts. Today, the Center works with rural and urban communities to revitalize their traditional commercial areas through historical preservation and grassroots-based economic development. However, it seems that rural community participation in the program has a bigger impact on commercial revitalization than urban participation. When smaller cities participate in the Main Street Approach the entire city is affected because most historic commercial buildings are centrally located in downtowns. In larger cities with many commercial districts only a few commercial areas usually participate in the Main Street Approach resulting in less overall impact. Cleveland, for example, has many commercial districts but only has two Main Street Programs: Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corporation and Historic Warehouse District Development Corporation.

The National Trust Main Street Center developed The Main Street Four-Point Approach which is a community-driven, comprehensive methodology used to revitalize older, traditional business districts throughout the United States. According to the Main Street Center the four-point approach, "is a common sense way to address the variety of issues and problems that face traditional business districts. The underlying premise of the Main Street approach is to encourage economic development within the context of historic preservation in ways appropriate to today's marketplace. The Main Street Approach advocates a return to community self-reliance, local empowerment, and the rebuilding of traditional commercial districts based on their unique assets: distinctive architecture, a pedestrian-friendly environment, personal service, local ownership, and a sense of community."

The Main Street Four-Point Approach is a comprehensive strategy that is tailored to meet local needs and opportunities and it encompasses work in four distinct areas: organization-- which involves getting everyone working toward the same goal and assembling the appropriate human and financial resources to implement a Main Street revitalization program; promotion-sells a positive image of the commercial district and encourages consumers to live, work, shop and invest in the Main Street district; designmeans getting Main Street into top physical shape; economic restructuring-strengthens a community's existing economic assets while expanding and diversifying its economic base. This Main Street approach has been successful in communities of all sizes, both rural and urban. There are more than1,200 active Main Street programs nationally. In Ohio there are 39 Main Street Programs and of these 10 are within an hours' drive of Bellevue: Amherst, Bowling Green, Elyria, Norwalk, Oberlin, Perrysburg, Port Clinton, Sandusky, Vermilion and Wellington.

Heritage Ohio is the Statewide Main Street Coordination Program in Ohio, as designated by the National Main Street Center. The National Trust views statewide preservation organizations as important contributors to the future of historic preservation. Heritage Ohio has been working with communities across the state to revitalize their historical preservation through the Four-Point Approach as developed by the National Main Street Center.

Although the City of Bellevue does not have a formal Main Street Program it does, however, follow the national standard for Main Street development and offers The Bellevue Downtown Revitalization Grant administered by The Bellevue Development Corporation.

There are many buildings that have taken advantage of the Downtown Grant to fund exterior and interior improvements since the grant's inception in February 2008. Thus far the grant has funded 20 projects for interior painting, AIC units, windows, roofs, landscaping, signage, wiring, ceiling and floor repair, plumbing, architectural fees, waterproofing, paving, and piping. Plus, there are another 3 projects currently under way and yet another 7 scheduled to begin this spring! If I add the 20 completed projects and the 3 to be completed projects, it totals $205,160.75!

To get the process started please refer to the Bellevue Downtown Grant Application Procedure, complete the City of Bellevue's Architectural Standards Board application and please contact Project Manager Russ Panas at 419.217.2998 or r.panas@bellevuedevelopment.org

Download Grant Application

Download Membership Application