DHCD Community Revitalization Grant Opportunities

Posted on by Department of Housing and Community Development

Annually, communities and stakeholders across Virginia have the ability to take advantage of various funding opportunities to support downtown revitalization, bolster job creation and private investment, achieve homeownership goals and more! The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development‘s (DHCD) Community Revitalization Office (CRO) encourages potential applicants to learn more about these programs and further explore the application process.

Virginia Main Street Downtown Investment Grant:

Downtown Investment Grants (DIGs) allow Main Street organizations to take on unique, onetime projects that measurably, creatively, and sustainably advance the organization’s goals and strategies while supporting the community’s vision for encouraging the private investment necessary for the economic revitalization of the Main Street district.

Virginia Main Street Community Vitality Grant:

Community Vitality Grants (CVG) are designed to assist organizations and communities in achieving their downtown revitalization goals. They’re ideal for former or current Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grantees or communities in the Exploring Main Street and Mobilizing Main Street program tiers that seek to implement projects that will create a positive impact on the downtown neighborhood’s long term goals.

Virginia Main Street Financial Feasibility Grant:

The Financial Feasibility Grant (FFG) allows communities to work with owners of significant “white elephant” buildings or structures with non-productive upper floor space to identify the highest and best use of such properties and develop any necessary plans or studies that will allow the owner to develop the property or allow the Main Street organization to “shop” the rehabilitation and reuse of said property to private developers and investors. This grant also allows for small-scale development by providing feasibility resources to new or beginning developers for buildings within the district.

Community Business Launch

Community Business Launch (CBL) is designed to assist communities in taking a systems approach to defining and pursuing an asset-based small business development strategy. The program starts with a community’s unique vision for its future and then uses a local business competition to find and foster the entrepreneurs that connect with that vision, providing the tools to effectively prepare multiple entrepreneurs to operate successful businesses in a downtown or neighborhood commercial district and allow them to compete for funding to start up their new endeavor.

Industrial Revitalization Fund

The Industrial Revitalization Fund (IRF) leverages local and private resources to achieve market-driven redevelopment of vacant and deteriorated industrial and commercial properties. The program is targeted toward vacant non-residential structures whose poor condition creates physical and economic blight to the surrounding area in which the structure is located. 

Virginia Individual Development Accounts

The Virginia Individual Development Accounts (VIDA) program helps qualified individuals save for a down payment on a home. Eligible participants receive training, support and match funding on their savings. The current match rate is $8 for every $1 the participant saves, up to $4,000 in match.

Virginia Enterprise Zone:

The Virginia Enterprise Zone (VEZ) program is a partnership between state and local government that encourages job creation and private investment. VEZ accomplishes this by designating Enterprise Zones throughout the state and providing two grant-based incentives, the Job Creation Grant (JCG) and the Real Property Investment Grant (RPIG), to qualified investors and job creators within those zones, while the locality provides local incentives.