If you’re a small business owner in the CRA District who wants to improve your building, landscape and/or property, but don’t have the financial opportunity to do so, the CRA can help! Just ask AGTLAND, P.A.
AGTLAND, P.A. is a full service landscape architecture firm located in Downtown Delray Beach and has been serving South Florida and the Caribbean since 1975. AGTLAND was founded by A. Grant Thornbrough with a design philosophy dedicated to solutions that are created in harmony with current trends in community planning and sustainable design while respecting the natural landscape.
AGT was awarded a Site Development Assistance award for $75,000, helping AGT to make much needed, and long overdue improvements to its property and building, located at 132 N. Swinton Ave., which is a contributing structure within the Old School Square Historic District. Funding was used for interior and exterior improvements to the main property including replacement and upgrade of windows and doors to impact standards, framing, carpentry, stucco, painting, landscaping, interior flooring, purchase and installation of cabinetry, plumbing and electrical upgrades.
“AGTLAND, P.A. was chosen because the project helps advance the CRA’s mission by supporting the renovation of an existing commercial space within the CRA District,” said Alexina Jeannite, grant manager at the CRA. “The award to AGT also helps preserve Delray’s cultural heritage, since the mini campus-like structures are considered contributing structures within a historic district. Assisting businesses, like AGT, with the cost of interior and exterior improvements helps to eliminate blighted conditions and promote new business activity in the CRA District.
Jeannite believes that Delray’s small local businesses help make the City the thriving community that it is. So when business owners are in need of financial assistance to help them offset the improvement costs, these grants provide them with the opportunity they might not have had access to otherwise. This makes the CRA funding important for several reasons, including helping to boost economic activity and eliminate blighted conditions within the CRA District.
“I do think that the funding assistance provided by the CRA definitely has spillover effects that are positive and impactful, for the businesses and the CRA alike,” Jeannite said. “When businesses are thriving, it contributes to the overall quality of life for the community as a whole. The assistance provided by the CRA is a reinvestment into the community.”
