Up-fit Grants Awarded to Three Downtown Raleigh Retailers

Downtown retailers Gypsy Jule, Port of Raleigh, and Retro Modern Furnishings are the most recent award recipients of up-fit incentive grants by the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. Each of the deserving downtown retailers received grants ranging from $3,000-$5,000, depending on the size of their store, and were selected through an application process.

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance established a retail up-fit grant program in late-2015 to help new retailers pay for improvements to their downtown stores. Since the program’s start, a total of $19,000 has been awarded to retailers. Grants are issued on a quarterly basis, and the most recent recipients are three of five total retailers that have been awarded grants thus far in 2016.

Planning and development manager for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, Bill King, predicts the program will award grants to a grand total of seven to eight new retailers in the 2016 fiscal year. The program recognizes that up-fit expenses can be a huge burden to new retailers, and King hopes that it will be able to provide more grants, and at larger values, to new downtown retailers in the future.

Be sure to check out each of the most recent award recipients’ new retail spaces! Gypsy Jule, a bohemian furniture and fashion shop, and Port of Raleigh, a home and lifestyle accessories shop with mainly imported products, are both now located in the L Building on W. Davie Street. Retro Model Furnishings, once located on Glenwood South, is now in The Hue Building on Dawson Street.

Follow along with the DRA’s #DTRetail program online at http://www.godowntownraleigh.com/shop-downtown.