7/27/2010 - Portland Daily Sun Article
By David Carkhuff/Staff Writer,david@portlanddailysun.me

Green-and-white striped awnings forming a canopy along the State Theatre block of Congress Street mark the second project from a city program that aims to beautify business exteriors

The improvements of the building fronts in the 600 block of Congress Street cost $9,684, with a grant of $4,842 from the city, city spokesperson Nicole Clegg said.

The awnings are historic in style and "a throwback," she noted, conforming to standards of a Congress Street Historic District.

Earlier this year, the city helped celebrate a new theater marquee installed at Port City Music Hall, 504 Congress St., the city's first Facade Improvement Grant project. The marquee features colored aluminum tubing, back-lighting, the venue's signature "equalizer/cityscape motif" and an electronic message board that will advertise events.

Port City Music Hall administrator Rob Evon applied for and received an $18,000 Facade Improvement Grant from Portland's Economic Development Division, funded through the federal Community Development Block Grant Program. The total cost of the Port City Music Hall marquee was $66,919 with $18,000 of that figure coming from the city's grant. Port City Music Hall provided the remaining $48,919, the city reported.

Five more Facade Improvement Grant projects will follow, Clegg said, including the King of the Roll restaurant at 675 Congress St.; the Public Market House at 28 Monument Square; and Coffee by Design at 620 Congress St.

The city created the program in 2008 to strengthen the revitalization of Congress Street by encouraging private investment in storefronts. The city targeted Congress Street businesses in an effort to enhance the Arts District streetscape and to strengthen or restore the original character of the buildings in that neighborhood, the city reported.

Beautification near the State Theatre is only a first step toward a resurgence in that area. New York City’s The Bowery Presents and Alex Crothers of Higher Ground Presents of Burlington, Vt., have signed a deal to reopen the State Theatre. Before this deal was announced, businesses banded around the State Theatre building and promoted themselves under the closed theater's banner.

With a capacity of 1,450, the State Theatre at 609 Congress St. has announced its first bill of concerts for mid-October.

The Port City Music Hall occupies the old Owen Moore department store, which later was the Keystone Theater, a movie theater with light dining. A 547-person-capacity venue, Port City Music Hall opened early last year a short walk west of Monument Square.

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