Last week, I told you about an innovative program in Gresham real estate that is luring new businesses from Portland and elsewhere into expansion in the suburbs through elimination of costly start-up fees. It looks like Hillsboro real estate in commercial areas like the cute downtown could be jumping on that bandwagon. Facing the same problems as other Portland-area suburbs, Hillsboro is drumming up ways to attract small businesses to the downtown area in order to raise property values, increase the traffic to homes for sale in Hillsboro, and stimulate the local neighborhood economy. The idea currently on the table (which will be discussed at a town meeting tonight) would cut land use and planning fees in half for small businesses taking over vacant downtown storefronts.
The Hillsboro Planning Department is angling to make the most of money given to small businesses from the town’s storefront improvements grant program. The fee cut would only apply to projects that qualify for the grants, and would eliminate the seeming disparity between companies receiving money from the grant fund and immediately paying it back through fees. In essence, the proposed program would allow the current system to accomplish what it was established to do: liven Main Street in the Portland metro area.
According to the existing legislation and grant availability, small businesses that are set up to improve storefronts within the specified “local improvements district” are able to apply for the $25,000 grant program, and the new program will eliminate development review and sign fees, which can save the businesses thousands of dollars.
If the plan works, and Hillsboro’s downtown area is rehabilitated by new storefronts and small businesses, home buyers will hopefully be increasingly attracted to the Gresham real estate market.
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