The city of Sugar Land offers property owners the opportunity to apply for up to thousands of dollars to upgrade commercial properties and redesign and renovate the exteriors of their homes.
The community southwest of Houston is allocating $500,000 to its grant program for business rehabilitation. Improvements to commercial properties that are 20 years of age or older and have at least 15,000 square feet available for lease will be eligible for up to 20% reimbursement.
Additionally, for the third consecutive year, Sugar Land is providing grants to single-family homeowners who reside inside the city borders through its Great Homes Update and Design programs.
City sales taxes will be used to fund the first year of the commercial rehabilitation program. Projects like new “public open spaces” and programs that encourage walkability or renovate building exteriors and add more parking are among the incentives the city hopes to offer.
“We wanted to just get something out there and see what we could entice and really start to create that redevelopment environment that Sugar Land needs,” stated Jessica Huble, assistant director of the city’s Department of Redevelopment. “Because we want to make inviting places for our residents and we want the shopping centers within their neighborhoods to really speak to them.”
Homeowners and homeowners associations can collaborate with businesses to generate renderings of possible exterior home redesigns at a reduced cost through the Great Homes design initiative. Refunds of up to $500 are available to individual homeowners who “substantially implement” an exterior home modification after taking part in the program.
Homeowners can receive reimbursement for major exterior home renovation projects under the Great Homes upgrade program. If they have a qualifying home improvement project that costs $8,000 or more, they can get up to 10% of their renovation expenditures reimbursed, up to a $10,000 maximum payment.
If a homeowner’s home was built in 1993 or before and is worth less than $455,952, they can receive up to a 25% reimbursement, which is also capped at $10,000, for projects totaling at least $4,000.
Every project needs to go through a city approval process. Homeowners that begin or finish projects before completing the application process and signing a contract with the city will not be eligible for compensation under the program.
The city intends to use its design and update grant programs to finance a minimum of 100 projects this year. The general fund of the city provides funding for these projects.
As the city ages, local leaders also hope the program might assist in modernizing homes.
Seventy percent of Sugar Land’s single-family houses were constructed prior to 2000, according to Jon Soriano, the city’s senior community development coordinator.
“We really want to create some housing options for new young families that want to move into the city,” he stated.
According to Soriano, the goal of the award programs is to encourage revitalization in the region.
“Sugar Land is an older city and we’re kind of at a crossroads in our life cycle due to a lot of social and economic and demographic factors,” he stated. “… Given these factors, we’ve been tasked by our leadership and city council to come up with programs to address these things and to help initiate the redevelopment and reinvestment in the city.”
The city’s website offers applications and complete eligibility requirements for the Great Homes and commercial revitalization programs.