Up to $100K grants on tap for Richmond Hill businesses as city extends program

City council decided to increase the maximum grant threshold for the building renovations grant from $50,000 to $100,000

Yorkregion.com
June 6, 2022
Sheila Wang

As local businesses are navigating the post-pandemic economy, the City of Richmond Hill is offering another round of financial incentives to help existing businesses recover and attract new opportunities.

The city has renewed a grant program created in 2018 to encourage new office development and incentivize facade improvements in designated areas across the city, including the downtown core and older business parks.

City council adopted a proposal to renew the Office Development and Village Local Centre Revitalization Community Improvement Plan (CIP) program for another five years at the April 27 meeting.

“This is a program that I'm really pleased to see starting to get traction,” Mayor David West said on council. “This is part of the solution to making sure we're doing all of the things we need to do to promote office space, to promote revitalization.”

From 2018 to 2021, the city received 26 applications, including seven completed projects funded by the city’s grant program as well as the Ontario Main Street Revitalization Initiative grant program, according the city’s policy planning manager Sybelle von Kursell.

The city and the province invested about $500,000 in these projects for signage, facade improvements and building renovations, in addition to about $1 million private investment.

There are three grant types in the CIP program -- tax increment equivalent grant for new offices, building renovation grant and facade improvement, landscape and signage grant, von Kursell said at her presentation to council.

At the meeting, city council decided to increase the maximum grant threshold for the building renovations grant from $50,000 to $100,000 to more reasonably represent the cost of such projects.

“The tax (increment equivalent grant) program is not quite popular right now. I think there's potential there. I look forward to building on the momentum for the rest of the program,” West said.

The city has yet to receive any application for the tax increment equivalent grant for new offices, which is designed to support the development/intensification of the office and reduce the costs of the development.

It provides a grant equivalent to the municipal portion of the property tax for a new office development and limits the total impact of increased assessment and property taxes as a result of the development by phasing the increases in over a maximum period of 10 years or equivalent to the maximum cost of rehabilitation, renovation and/or (re)development.

The changes to the CIP program will be undertaken through the formal CIP update process in accordance with the Planning Act, while budget approvals will occur through the city’s normal operating budget process.

The city has begun accepting grant applications for 2022.

For more information about the program and how to apply, visit RichmondHill.ca/CIPGrants.