By Eric Eisenberg
ALLSTON – Bob Webber stood in front of his store on Harvard Avenue and looked across the street at a property he had purchased that was falling into disrepair. A heavy billboard on the roof weighed down the building and the wood had begun to rot.
“If you had seen the building prior to the construction, it was pretty seedy looking,” Webber said.
With the assistance of Allston Main Streets, one of 19 Main Street businesses in the Boston area, Webber received money 5 years ago to refurbish the building’s storefront, allowing him to sell the property to Scissor Sound, a hair salon.
Over the last 13 years, Allston Main Streets has assisted about 40 businesses in the neighborhood renovate their storefronts by providing companies with up to $5,000 toward façade improvements.
An independent non-profit organization, Allston Main Streets receives money from the city of Boston, a percentage of which is used to assist business owners who are interested in both improving the aesthetics of the store and attracting customers.
“It’s just much more inviting and a large part of our marketing is our attractive storefront,” said Doug Bacon, owner of the White Horse Tavern on Brighton Avenue, which underwent construction in 1998.
Businesses apply for financial assistance through Main Streets, which then seeks the city’s approval. While most store owners hire their own architects, Main Streets provides business owners with access to the city’s on-staff architects.
“[The service] can be very beneficial for some businesses that don’t really have an idea of what they want or don’t have the expertise to come up with something,” said Katie Reed, the executive director of Allston Main Streets.
Main Streets encourages businesses to pursue storefront reconstruction it also maintains rules from the federal government, because of the money’s origin as a community development grant, and to improve the neighborhood’s overall appearance. This includes the elimination of plastic “light-box” signs and solid metal security gates.
“Solid roll-down grates are pretty unattractive and they make the street feel isolated from the businesses,” Reed said. “It makes [the neighborhood] feel unsafe.”
The fund can be used for simple projects such as adding a sign or an awning Webber and Farhad Fakhroldini, the owner of the Second Cup Café on Brighton Avenue, which underwent construction in 2007, completely change the front of their businesses, constructing windows and moving the door to the right side of the building to allow customers to have better access to the shop.
Many businesses initiate the process by turning in applications, but they – to the chagrin of Reed and Allston Main Streets – often don’t follow through on their plans.
“I think a lot of times it doesn’t go through because the businesses just don’t finish following up,” Reed said. “It is a shame, because we do have funding available and it is a really fantastic resource.”
© Eric Eisenberg, All Rights Reserved