Committee OKs facade improvement grants

Boardroom Spirits, Borneman Remodeling & Renovations could receive up to $5K in borough funds

Two local businesses are taking advantage of a newly passed incentive for facade improvements, and a third is in the works.

Borough Manager John Ernst announced Tuesday night that Boardroom Spirits and Borneman Remodeling and Renovations are the first two applicants seeking grants of up to $5,000 under the borough’s new Façade Improvement Grant program.

“Boardroom Spirits applied for a $5,000 facade improvement grant, as part of their larger expansion program, over at their existing facility,” Ernst said.

Located at 575 W. Third St. in a former industrial building, Boardroom Spirits is a family-owned distillery that opened in February 2016, combines American and European techniques and styles into an assortment of flavored vodkas, whiskeys and other spirits, and was recognized with the borough’s Business of the Month award in June.

Ernst told council’s Economic Development Committee Tuesday night that Boardroom is planning to expand into an adjacent building to add a larger tasting room and storage space, and plan to add additional outdoor seating and windows facing outside.

“They occupy basically an L-shape, and they’ve taken over the long wing of that L that runs parallel with Third Street,” Ernst said.

“Facing Third Street, they’re providing some glass and windows, that will provide for more lighting” for those inside the new area, according to the manager — “that’s what they’ll be looking into investing” the grant funds into.

Under the facade improvement grant program approved by council earlier this year, an internal borough task force vets each application, then recommends to the Economic Development Committee whether to approve the grant request, and the EDC had a total of $25,000 included in its 2018 budget for the facade grants and other projects.

That task force consists of Ernst, resident and planning commission member Mike Panachyda, Councilman Bill Henning, and local architect Connie Lezenby, and Ernst said that task force recommended the committee approve the request.

“We felt that this was a win-win for the economic development committee in approving this, for a couple of reasons. First, it does deal with a facade, and it is improving what’s there,” he said.

“We also felt this was an applicant that actually was able to hit the ground running with their project,” Ernst said, and anyone who visits Boardroom can see a successfully funded facade project.

Committee member Denton Burnell asked if the facade improvements would be visible from both Third Street and from the new construction by developer Equus atop the nearby Madison Parking Lot, and Ernst said it will.

Member Carrie Hawkins Charlton said she had heard the expansion project will also add green space, and Ernst said some new green space will be added between the new outdoor seating and the parking lot area. Since the total cost of the expansion project will be well over $5,000, Ernst said, the business asked for, and the task force recommended, a grant of up to $5,000 to be put toward the facade upgrades.

“They will be coming forward to the committee and submitting receipts, of which we will have to approve up to $5,000 for this project,” Ernst said.

Borneman Remodeling and Renovations is located on the 700 block of West Main, across from the former Manna on Main Street, and currently features a retaining wall that spans the front of their property, is made from old railroad ties, and has a set of stairs in the middle.

“They have come forward with a project that will replace the railroad ties with a concrete block, decorative landscape wall, and it will be a little bit lower to the ground: only 30 to 36 inches, instead of the approximately 48 inches high they have now,” Ernst said.

Two cost estimates were provided to the task force, Ernst told the committee: one quoted a price of roughly $11,000 and the second roughly $8,000, depending on the size and width of the wall they create, and Lezenby said the task force asked that the new wall be able to channel water into a planting area instead of onto the nearby sidewalk.

“He was receptive to the ideas, but has not submitted any revised drawings, which he does not have to do,” Ernst said.

“Our task here, as the economic development committee, is to approve the applicant, up to 50 percent or a maximum of $5,000 for the project,” he said.

The committee then approved both requests unanimously, and Ernst said a third request from Breathe Salon and Day Spa at 703 W. Main, has been discussed but the task force has asked for more information.

Funds for each facade grant will come from a $25,000 line item included for the economic development committee in the borough’s 2018 budget, and Ernst said as talks begin on the 2019 budget in the coming weeks, council should keep that line item in mind.

“Just to be clear, do you mean to replenish it up to $25,000, or to add another $25,000 regardless of how much of the current $25,000 we use?” Burnell asked.

“I could say ‘I will take what I can get.’ At the very least, I think we should replenish it to $25,000, and anything above and beyond that, I think we could probably find a way to use that funding for other programs and other initiatives,” Ernst replied.

EDC member Richard Strahm said he would like to see the borough feature photos of each facade upgrade before and after the grant-funded upgrades on the town’s website and social media channels, and Ernst and Communication Coordinator Tracy Flynn said they would do so.

For more information on the borough’s Facade Improvement Grant program, visit www. lansdale.org and select “Doing Business,” then “Facade Improvement Grants.”