More façade work will be done, more homes will be fixed and more businesses can get loans to expand or improve in and around downtown Franklin.
The Franklin Development Corp., an organization that focuses on improving and rehabilitating homes and businesses in Franklin, was approved to receive another year of funding. The organization that was created by the city will get $400,000 in property tax dollars set aside in the city’s tax-increment financing, or TIF, districts to fund its programs. Their request for funding was approved by the city redevelopment commission this week.
That money will be spent on projects meant to improve the city, including facade improvements for downtown businesses, loans to residents who want to fix up their homes or businesses that want to grow or improve and for long-vacant homes that officials want to get sold and improved.
Exactly how that money will be divvied up this year is yet to be decided, board member Jeff Mercer said.
In the past, the organization has shifted its funding based on interest in its programs, he said. So if more people want grants to update their façades, for example, more money could be dedicated to that program, he said.
And how long the money will last is also hard to gauge, Mercer said.
Two years ago, the organization finished the year with money left, but last year, it ran out of funding about halfway through the year with the number of grants and loans requested and approved, Mercer said. The organization will not ask for more funds this year, he said.
One program the group does want to continue is to get long vacant properties that haven’t sold at tax sale and sell them to someone who will fix them, Mercer said.
Last year, the organization got five properties — including two pieces of land and three homes — transferred to them that had not sold at tax sale and sold four of them at auction. The fifth property is out for bids again, and officials expect it will sell, Mercer said.
Now, the group is eying two more properties for that program, based on the success they had in the first round, Mercer said.
Their goals for that program match up with the city’s goals for redeveloping eyesore properties, Mercer said.
