Custom Business Signs – City Of Kitchener Facade Grant Program

Giving Downtown Kitchener A Facelift One Business at a Time

Here at Sign Depot we knew the impact the Facade Grant Program would make in giving Downtown Kitchener a facelift.   He knew this custom business sign project would be massive, that is why he came to The Sign Depot.  We are experts in custom business signs and were able to see the project through from the sign permits to the final sign installations

Mario Halapir, owner of Sportslink, took advantage of Kitchener’s grant program to upgrade the facade of his store. Here are some of the highlights from the article. This article is taken from http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/672483  

• Behind the sleek new sign and the strikingly modern stucco lays the bones of a building that has watched over Kitchener’s downtown for nearly a century. With its modern facelift, Mario Halapir’s soccer retail store and uniform business, Sports Link, shows little sign of its age. But what it does show, Halapir hopes, is his commitment to the business and the city’s core. “With the economy the way it is right now, everyone’s thinking about saving dollars,” he said. “We thought about it the other way around. We said, ‘We’re going to invest some money into our business so we can be here forever.’ ”

 

• The Sports Link façade improvement is the largest completed project in the city’s granting program, which matches exterior improvement dollars for commercial businesses in the downtown.

 

• The city will pay up to $10,000 per storefront for approved projects. In total, Kitchener has $600,000 to hand out over the five years of the program.

 

• In 2009, the city approved grants totalling $175,000. The private investment portion of those projects will equal about $375,000 since some businesses exceed the maximum amount that could be matched, said Cory Bluhm, the city’s urban investment adviser.

 

• In its inaugural year, 10 businesses were approved for grants in the Kitchener program. Four projects, including DNA silk screening, two storefronts at the Tannery, Matter of Taste and Sports Link, are now completed.

 

• Sports Link, located on the corner of Charles and Ontario streets, made $80,000 worth of improvements to its façade, including upgrades to the windows, signage and all new stucco.

 

• The façade program is aimed at businesses within the area bordered by the railway tracks on the west to Cedar Street on the east, and Joseph Street on the south to Weber Street on the north. Of the 10 projects approved last year, seven are on King Street.

 

Here is the BEFORE image of The Sportlink