Business Façade pARTnership Grant Program
A Win-Win For Businesses and Artists
The Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI) Business Façade pARTnership Grant partners local artists and maker professionals with the local business community to complete capital improvements to the façade of a business site. The program is designed to catalyze business growth within the BeltLine Tax Allocation District (TAD) that spans the 22-mile BeltLine corridor.
Business Façade pARTnership grant program objectives:
- Stimulate growth of business through capital improvements
- Provide work opportunities for Atlanta’s artist and maker community through the implementation of the transformative designs they create
- Catalyze revitalization of commercial districts within the TAD while showcasing a business’s proximity to the Atlanta BeltLine and attracting new tenants, investment, and customers to the district
Grant Program Interest Form
To receive information about the next program cycle, please fill out the interest form below.
Program Timeline
Phase 1: Call For Businesses
The Business Façade pARTnership Grant program beings with an open a call for businesses located within the Atlanta BeltLine TAD to submit an application outlining their façade improvement needs.
Grants vary depending on the cost to implement the capital improvement design selected and approved during the process but will not exceed $40,000 per business site. A 5% match will be required by the business participant prior to the implementation of the façade improvement and will be nonrefundable.
To receive information about the next program cycle and call for businesses, please fill out the interest form.
Phase 2: Call For Artist Partners & Makers
The Business Façade pARTnership Grant program provides local artists and maker professionals with work opportunities that help support the revitalization of commercial districts.
Once business participants have been selected, a call for artists, featuring the façade improvement project opportunities, will be announced. Artists will be invited to submit proposals that showcase the business’ proximity to the BeltLine by providing a new BeltLine-facing façade, implement a COVID-related adaptation to the storefront, or other façade improvement that will help attract new customers, tenants, and investment to the commercial district. Artist proposals will be reviewed by subject-matter experts from ABI and receive input from the corresponding business participant.
Artist partners will be selected based on the artist proposal’s ability to meet the needs of the business’ request and ABI’s stated objectives, including the design’s durability/longevity and visual impact. “Improvement was made possible by Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.” will be incorporated into the design.
Phase 3: Façade Improvement
Once artists are selected, ABI will work with the business owner to finalize a project agreement. A kick-off meeting will then be scheduled between the business owner, the artist partner, and ABI staff from Economic Development to discuss the implementation and construction schedule. The business participant fee of 5% will be generated based on the selected design budget and is nonrefundable. The grant is paid directly to the artist partner by ABI.
Business Façade pARTnership Grant Program
Better Curb Appeal with a Creative Spin
Since 2019, five businesses have successfully completed storefront improvements through two cycles of the Atlanta BeltLine Business Façade pARTnership Grant.
Carver Market set out to right a wrong: That in a community that used to have four grocery stores, there were none. The market and coffee shop, Community Grounds, opened and now serves an area that had turned into a food desert, bringing new life and vigor to the historic South Atlanta neighborhood.
Artist Partner
George F. Baker III
Website
CreateATL’s mission with Beam Imagination is to transform blighted industrial properties into collaboration spaces guided by community voices. Over the next decade the goal is to replicate this model across Atlanta neighborhoods that are important, but have yet to receive the least investment. Memberships give access to a shared work and event space for up to 100 people, a community workshop, a podcast studio, and a coworking/collaboration area. The community’s core tenets are equity, accessibility and optimism. As part of this project, the building’s exterior was painted and a deck was added.
Artist Partner
Tina Hofer Medico
Website
Pegleg Studio, a woodworking studio, is located in a former auto parts warehouse at 515 Ralph David Abernathy dating to the late 1890s that will be home to eight new enterprises once renovations are complete. The 3,000-square-foot westside warehouse compound has a restored cross-hatched wood floor and twenty-foot ceiling supported by square, wooden columns. Along with Pegleg Studio, Eyedrum Inc., a ground breaking art gallery, and Moisture Love, a hair care products company, are just a few of the eco-friendly, women- and minority-owned companies and nonprofits currently located there.
Artist Partners
Lance Darden
Instagram
Vera Zeigler
Instagram
Kris Dunbar and his wife, Michelle, opened A/C Clutch Bicycle Shop as a full service bicycle shop servicing the Westside of Atlanta, an area that had not had a bicycle shop for over 40 years.
Artist Partner
Rose Smith and Morgan Myles
Website
Nestled between Grant Park and East Atlanta, Red’s Beer Garden is the first of its kind in Benteen Park, Atlanta. Step off the Southside BeltLine and grab a beer from around the world – or from a brewery down the road.
Artist Partner
