Lexington Awards Façade Grants to 5 Main Street Businesses

Five business on Main Street will use $5,000 grants from the Town of Lexington to spruce up the exterior of their buildings or storefronts. 

The town received 24 applications for the grants. The Town of Lexington Board of Architecture and Appearance voted to award grants to the five businesses whose improvements they thought would have the greatest impact on downtown Lexington.

These businesses are receiving grants: 

• New Brookland Associates, the company that owns the building that is home to Mae's on Main. The estimated value of the project is $100,700.
• KCR Property, LLC, the company that is planning to build a new restaurant on East Main Street next to Craig Reagin Clothiers. The grant will be used on the new restaurant, which will be called Kermit's. The estimated value of the project is $300,000. 
• Old Mill, LLC. The owners will use the grant money to help fix the broken windows in the building's boiler room and to tear down the delapidated building on the dam. The lumber from the building will be saved. The estimated value of the project is $13,500. 
• Wesley Rhoten, owner of Rhoten's Country Store, will use the grant to help replace rotting wood on the top of his store with brick. 
• The owners of Main Street Cafe will use their grant to put new awnings on their storefront and add lighting for the sign. The estimated value of the project is $9,591. 

The town budgeted $25,000 for the grants, but Mayor Randy Halfacre said because the town received such a large number of applications, he would like to see the amount doubled next year.