The most recent awards from the CEDC were for improvements to the First Baptist Church’s Downtown Ministry Center and to remodeling done by one of Clarendon’s newest business, Fantastic Nails. Both properties qualified for and received the maximum grant of $2,000.
Representatives of the Downtown Ministry Center have known about the CEDC’s program since its inception in 2008 and even attended the initial public hearing that helped shaped the program.
“This has been a three-year project,” church volunteer Terry Ashcraft said. “We certainly appreciate this grant, and the money will go right back into this building.”
The church installed a new sidewalk in front of the center, removed a dilapidated awning, and gave the building an updated paint job and a new sign. An attractive metal awning was then added to the structure, which in addition to improving appearances has helped keep the building cool.
Ashcraft said the church now plans to do some interior remodeling, repaint the north side of the building, which is visible from US 287, and possibly add an entrance for their community clothes closet on the north side.
Fantastic Nails & Spa, owned by sisters Trisha Tran and Valerie Tran, opened for business last month and is now attracting local clients as well as folks from Memphis, Hedley, Wheeler, and other nearby communities.
Trisha Tran said she did not know about the CEDC program when she first considered purchasing the former Studio E location at 103 S. Kearney earlier this year.
“I was excited to find out about it,” she said. “It helps out a lot. The money will help cover the new sign.”
In addition to new signage and a new EIFS stucco façade, Tran and her sister knocked down partitions inside the building and installed new heating and cooling, new ceramic tile floors, eight spa pedicure chairs, and five tables for manicures. A new room was also created for cosmetologist Judy Thornberry, who continues to do hair in the building.
Tran says she has plans for more improvements in the coming months, including a new awning in the next month or so and new windows and an improved sidewalk next spring.
The CEDC has budgeted $10,000 for this fiscal year’s Façade Grant Program, which provides fifty-fifty matching grants up to a maximum of $2,000 per project for properties on a three-block stretch of Kearney Street.
Projects eligible for consideration could be anything from a coat of paint to new signage to a complete rehabilitation of a storefront. Those interested in the grants are asked to apply prior to beginning a project, and applications are available from CEDC Secretary Roger Estlack at The Clarendon Enterprise.
Since the Façade Grant Program began in 2008, the CEDC has awarded $10,414.15.
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