Call for Projects : Iowa Department of Economic Development

CALL FOR PROJECTS - Downtown Revitalization Fund
Recaptured and reallocated funds, when approved by the Director, may be used to fund downtown revitalization projects. IDED will consider funding a project if it meets and addresses the criteria below:

• The project must meet the slum and blight national objective;
• It must be eligible under the CDBG program;
• Positive impact on the community;
• Readiness to proceed with the proposed activity and likelihood that the activity can be completed in a timely fashion;
• Level of community support for a downtown revitalization effort;
• Degree to which downtown revitalization fund assistance would be leveraged by other funding sources and documentation of applicant efforts to secure the maximum amount of local support for the activity;
• Degree to which the activity meets or exceeds the minimum building and site design criteria established by IDED to be eligible for funding;
• Level of planning completed for comprehensive downtown revitalization efforts.

Communities can apply to IDED any time during the year with a pre-application. If IDED determines the community and the proposed activity are eligible for funding, it shall notify the community and invite them to complete a full application which will be due by February. Awards will be announced in May. Pre-applications, instructions, program rules and rating criteria are available on the IDED website.
Communities can meet the national objective requirements one of two ways; either they can complete a city-wide income survey to meet the low-to-moderate income requirement or they can qualify if they meet the slum and blight criteria. Meeting the slum and blight criteria involves the community designating an area as slum and blight using the criteria established by the state, completing a building inventory, and demonstrating how the project would positively affect the area.

A copy of the application can be found here.