ROCKINGHAM — A sizable contribution to the city’s coffers will help toward efforts to renovate the former Food King property to house more downtown businesses.
City Manager Monty Crump on Wednesday shared an email notifying the city that it has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the Rural Economic Development Division of the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Crump said the funds would be used to cover general construction costs.
“This grant was prepared in-house by John Massey and I would be remiss in failing to mention the great job that he did, particularly with the short turnaround this grant process had of just over a month,” Crump said.
This grant makes more than $1 million the city has received for the project, including $300,000 from the state budget. Crump said the city would be applying for additional grant funding.
“I know it’s taken a while, but when you get the opportunity to get money from other sources to pay for it, where it doesn’t come out of the pockets of the local taxpayers, I think a little time spent getting funding together is a wise thing to do,” Crump said during the April City Council meeting.
Also at that meeting, the city approved a flooring contract with Southern Builders. Crump said Wednesday that work started this week and is ongoing.
“Hopefully we will be able to proceed pretty quickly with the tenant upfit when the floor demo and replacement is complete,” Crump said.
The City Council approved the $60,000 purchase of the property in February of 2018.
Last October, Massey presented to the council a concept that shows a space for a restaurant on the end near the parking lot, with space for an outdoor patio, as well as two other storefronts on the west side of the building.
Massey said it has been difficult to find a single potential tenant to occupy the 10,000 square-foot space, so the city asked the architect to divide the property.
The proposed restaurant space would be around 4,000 square feet. The other two spaces would be around 2,500 square feet, each.
Late last year, the city took care of plumbing issues during a streetscape enhancement along the block.
The city also installed outlets in the parking lot for food vendors to use during — events like the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce’s Downtown Getdown — to cut out generator noise.
Crump said in March that local contractor Hudson Paving had the low bid for a resurfacing job.
Crump said at the time that the price tag for the repairs and up-fitting utilities is estimated to cost $2.5-3 million.
