Last year, Parker and Caroline Thurman became the owners of the historic Cutty Sark Coastal Inn & Cottages at the Oceanfront.
They set about renovating while preserving what makes the property along Atlantic Avenue unique – the 1960s kitchenettes in its rooms and the classic beach cottages.
A grant program to help businesses make improvements is helping them with painting, landscaping and installing a sign facing the avenue. The $23,750 award is only a piece of their larger investment, but Parker Thurman said it’s meaningful.
“Every little bit helps,” he said, noting theirs is a family-owned business competing with larger hotels.
The city announced the Atlantic Avenue Grant Program in January to help property owners improve curb appeal. The program matches 50% of a business’ costs for exterior improvements along the avenue between 2nd and 40th streets.
So far, grants have assisted with monument signs, lighting, paint and more, but it hasn’t had the response officials had hoped. On Tuesday, the Virginia Beach Development Authority voted to lower the threshold for the cost of improvements to attract interest.
Now, potential awards range between $5,000 and $25,000, and money is paid within 12 months of approval for completed work. Before, the minimum award was $10,000, which meant a $20,000 investment by the applicant.
On Tuesday, Eric Severn, a planner in the city’s economic development department, said the program has about $147,000 of available funding and there have been few applications compared to the city’s facade improvement grant program.
“I went to the Atlantic Avenue Association and different business owners on Atlantic Avenue expressed that that $20,000 minimum spend is pretty high for a lot of businesses down there,” Severn told members of the authority before the vote.
Monday at the Oceanfront, Thurman told WHRO he hopes the lower threshold helps.
“I hope that more businesses take advantage of it because the better that Atlantic Avenue looks, the better it is for all of us.”
