The deadline to apply for the Knoxville facade improvement grant program is Friday. 

The city introduced this first of its kind program in 2022 and had 22 applications during the first round. Going into the fourth year of this program, the city has awarded over 40 applications. The grants that have been awarded over the past three years have totaled $217,000. Business owners can submit applications for facade improvements, in which the city will provide a reimbursement of 50% up to $10,000. The biggest change for this year is that not only are downtown commercial buildings eligible, but the city opened up the window for commercial buildings along Lincoln and West Pleasant streets. Knoxville Mayor Brian Hatch said this program has been great for the downtown area, but now they wanted to expand the program to a different part of Knoxville.

“You can see it. You just drive downtown and you can see some of those buildings that have been remodeled and updated and they are just looking so nice. Then it became pretty popular in the downtown area after people had caught on for a year or two and the council decided is it just the downtown we want to focus on or should we expand out now that we kind of hit that downtown area and they did.”

Further eligibility information and applications can be viewed here.