Businesses Across Tuscaloosa to Get City’s Help Funding Facade “Facelifts”

More than a dozen businesses in Tuscaloosa will get financial help from the city government to improve their public-facing facades.

As the Thread reported in November, the city is looking to promote retail activity, spur new economic growth and beautify the city by partnering with businesses who need a hand in funding projects.

On Tuesday, the Tuscaloosa City Council approved 15 agreements under the Facelift program that will reimburse business owners up to 80 percent of projects to improve their facades.

For instance, a business spending $10,000 to make their building look better could get $8,000 back from the city to help incentivize the work.

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The recipients included

A sixteenth business, the Druid City Makerspace in West Tuscaloosa, is expected to receive the last of this available funding at a city council meeting Tuesday.

Tuscaloosa City Councilman Lee Busby said even with so many recipients, the council had many applicants they had to turn down.

Busby represents District 4, which includes the downtown area as well as the University Strip, so many of the recipients approved Tuesday are his constituents.

"I was very glad to see some businesses in the District get funding," Busby said. "But even though we gave each councilmember 10 votes to cast toward who should get funding, I couldn't even cast a vote for all of the businesses in my district that applied. The process was very good, and while I think five of the businesses in my district got some money, there were at least that many or more that didn't get it."

Busby said businesses that qualified for these reimbursements had to submit drawings and renderings of their planned improvements as well as detailed funding requirements and more.

Work on these improvements should be completed within a year, Busby said.

For more coverage of news in west Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.