Buena Vista is partnering with Southern Virginia University to seek an Industrial Revitalization Fund grant to help pay for the planned transformation of a vacant downtown building into an arts center.
City Council this past Thursday approved an application for a $450,000 IRF grant that SVU is matching with $500,000 to develop an arts gallery, studios for students and faculty offices at 2076 Magnolia Ave. The building, directly across 21st Street from the library, has been vacant for at least 10 years. Grizzly Archery was the last retailer to occupy the building.
“I think it’s a great use for that location downtown because the gallery space not only will be able to display works, but they’ll be able to have events in that space,” said Tom Roberts, the city’s director of community development. “And, you know, there’ll be some community engagement in that way. Also, it’ll bring students downtown. You know, every week, every day, there’ll be some students that will have their class or their studio time or whatever. … It’ll build the connection between SVU and downtown.”
SVU has owned the building since 2022 but the plans to use it for an arts center have come together very quickly just recently. The application for the IRF grant has already been sent in because it was due July 31, so authorization for the application was being sought retroactively, Roberts said.
IRF grants fund the rehabilitation of commercial/ industrial buildings for new uses with the intention of revitalizing communities, he explained. Buena Vista has had success with obtaining such grants in the past, having secured ones for the Rockbridge Innovation Accelerator in the former Mundet Hermetite factory building and the Mountain Gateway Community College Wilson Workforce Training Center in the former Courtesy Ford building.
“The other nice thing is that localities are the only entities that can apply for this grant program, but once it’s awarded, the actual contract can be between the Department of Housing and Community Development and the developer, in this case SVU,” said Roberts. “So we are applying but there is no required expenditure by the city. We are not providing any money into this, and we will not be, we will not be fronting the money in the sense that there won’t actually be any money going through city coffers for this project. And we will not be involved in the management and compliance of the grant either. So it’s really a pretty low lift for us.”
Council member Amy Gilliam, even though she joined the rest of Council in approving the application, said she does “have a problem” with not getting information about the proposal in advance and being asked to approve a resolution retroactively. She said she felt Council was being “strong-armed” and would prefer to be notified in advance of such initiatives in the future. “I’d like for you to be working with SVU to just kind of get the timelines matched up a little better with City Council meetings …,” she said.
Roberts said he understood Gilliam’s concerns and would try to get information out to Council in a more timely manner in the future.
After Clerk of Council Sarah Burch read the resolution authorizing the application, Ron Cash made a motion to approve it that was seconded by Michelle Poluikis and passed 6-0.
