DDA has a Lighting Improvement Micro Grant Program for downtown businesses. Grants are available at $2000 to install exterior lighting to enhance pedestrian safety. Applicants are not required to provide matching funds but must agree to keep the lighting on from dusk to dawn. Derek Simmons of C & C Mercantile & Lighting helps with the lighting design. Call the DDA office at 318-222-7403 for more information.
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Previous Story: Two downtown properties have successfully applied for the Lighting Grant being offered by the Downtown Development Authority. Xtreme Measures Women’s Business Center at 856 Texas Avenue just across from Caddo Common Park,
856 Texas Avenue, all lit up!
and the new Cooper’s Corner business offices/retail spaces at 700 Texas Street, which is nearly the end of many months of construction! Cooper’s Corner plans to install downward-flowing can lights in the alcove and some period perfect crook arm lights on the facade. All will direct light toward the public spaces; the sidewalk and streetscape, which is a key component in the lighting grant.
700 Texas Street, soon to be lit up!
To encourage property and business owners to light things up, the Downtown Development Authority rolled out a Facade Improvement Micro Grant for lighting that impacts public spaces. The grant, which can be up to $2,000, is intended to help defray costs of installing new exterior lighting that spills onto the sidewalk in front of your building or business. These lights must be left on daily from dusk until dawn.
The grant will also consider if you wish to convert interior lights to LED and leave them on from dusk to dawn or if you wish to add lighting to your window displays. You can see the difference that interior lighting left on – and additional exterior lighting – makes to a street scene.
Vastly more welcoming and much safer-feeling!
We are taking a two-pronged approach at encouraging more light downtown. We will continue to work with our partners at the City of Shreveport and SWEPCO in making sure that the ‘Streetscape’ (fancy light poles on the sidewalks) and cobra head (the tall plain poles, mainly at intersections) lights owned and maintained by the City and SWEPCO are in working order.
717 Crockett. There are no real exterior lights, but the interior lights cast the area in a great glow.
Lighting is good for business. Buildings in the dark, no matter where they are- look more foreboding and unwelcoming and with the improvements in lighting technology and the lower cost of LED lighting, now is a great time to light up your space!
No lighting. Definitely more foreboding.
The funds in our Downtown Lighting Micro Grant are limited, so take a look at the grant requirements and current grant boundary, and if you qualify, fill it out and get your application into us! We will get an answer back to you quickly.
Here is the paperwork and grant application
We’re looking forward to helping our business and property partners brighten up downtown!
