NORFOLK, Va. — Several businesses along 35th Street between Colonial and Colley Avenues in Norfolk's Park Place neighborhood—also known as 35th Street Business Corridor—are getting a big financial boost from the city to help them improve their appearance on the outside and the inside.
It's all to help them stay anchored in the community.
Ismael Saleem took News 3's Jay Greene on a tour of the future home of New Africa Marketplace.
"We're going to have African garments," Saleem said. "We'll have some Islamic garments, some headgear for the women and for the men."
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Saleem, the imam of the next-door mosque, said his community recently purchased the space. While it's a bit empty right now, he hopes to have it up and running in the next few months.
Saleem recently got more than $46,000 from the facade improvement grant from Norfolk's Economic Development.
Since its inception two years ago, economic development officials said the program has handed out $1.2 million to local businesses, helping them fix issues inside and out, from plumbing to electrical work to outside displays, drainage and windows.
"So the last round of ARPA dollars, which of course, were the federal stimulus monies at the City of Norfolk and other municipalities, were able to leverage 2 million of those particular dollars came to economic development, and we made the decision to stand up this program with those funds," said Sean Washington, the director of economic development for the City of Norfolk. "Some of these particular corridors, when you go down, you see, unfortunately, a high amount of blight particular structures and or vacant buildings. So as a result of the pandemic, this was the way for us to baby to kind of combat against some of those challenges that we saw."
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Business development manager Nikki Southall told Greene the program is a way to help businesses stay in the community.
"To be able to revitalize and put a fresh new face on the businesses that are here, and it also really is to attract new businesses," Southall said.
Southall said six other businesses along 35th Street were awarded money from the most recent application pool. That includes Commonwealth Preservation Group.
"They use the funding to address a lot of their issues with their roofing, the water runoff. So they were able to use funding for that and also for their exterior," she said. "They're able to freshen up the outside, put some new paint, put new doors, and it looks amazing."
Washington said business owners who wish to apply should be somewhat well-established.
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"We want to make sure that you actually have a lease that's already in place that has at least an 18-month term on there," Washington said. Obviously, if the businesses are investing, property owners are investing, and we are investing, we want to make sure that that business has the opportunity to be able to be sustainable within that grant agreement, as well as that term, with that actual with the property owner, in terms of the lease itself.
Businesses in Norfolk's Riverview neighborhood also recently got money from the grant. Later this fall, the application window for businesses in other communities like Lafayette and East Little Creek.
"We want to see some of the vacant particular parcels that were there now getting backfilled," Washington told Greene. "You can start to see things like job creation and tax revenue as well."
Once businesses are awarded the money, Economic Development Department will work with them to help spend the money responsibly.
Saleem knows exactly where the money will go for his business.
"We’re gonna get the flooring done, we’ve got these walls replaced and the lighting replaced, the HVAC system and the vents are all being done," he said.
Saleem told Greene he plans to develop some mentorship for programming for youth in the area.
Applicants must go through a mandatory grant session to qualify, but Saleem says it's worth it if he can help turn Park Place into a destination.
"The city has dubbed this the soul of Norfolk, and we want to make that a place where people are coming because this is Park Place as a soul of Norfolk. We want to bring back the soul," he said.
For more information about the grant, click or tap here.
