Downstate towns and cities are celebrating after state officials designated five new Downtown Development Districts Wednesday morning.
Projects in Smyrna, Milford, Harrington, Georgetown and Laurel will now be eligible for state grants to rehab old buildings for commercial use or help with residential initiatives.
Awards run up to 20 percent of a project's cost, with money dedicated to both large and small proposals.
Revitalization efforts have already been underway in some of these towns, with new businesses especially flocking to Smyrna and Milford.
Smyrna mayor Joanne Masten says before that, the town used to be deserted after banks closed.
“But now with [The Inn at Duck Creek] here, the bakery, we have two really nice shops down the street – Royal Treatments as well as Smyrna Card and News and Sayers Jewelers. I see people on the street and that’s really what it’s all about – it’s getting people to come out and enjoy the community,” Masten said.
Milford mayor Bryan Shupe noted that the access to public dollars will keep momentum moving forward.
"This will help ignite even more progress and at a more accelerated pace," Shupe said.
State officials chose areas in Wilmington, Dover and Seaford as the original districts in 2014.
Legislators set aside $8.3 million for the program this year to be split among the eight districts.
Gov. Jack Markell (D), who originally proposed the initiative, says he’s not too concerned about the bigger pool softening the ultimate goal of the program.
“It is somewhat diluted, but I also think we’ve given the first three towns a pretty good head start in terms of getting some projects going – there may be some additional ones as well – but we always intended that the program would grow beyond the original [three districts] and we thought this was the right time,” Markell said.
Since 2015, $14 million in state money has been used to build apartments, fund new low-income housing and rehab commercial spaces in the first three districts.
That has leveraged $290 million in private capital.
The next funding round for large projects begins in early September.
