Title
Cotton Club/ Perryman Grocery Store (B)
Explanation
Cotton Club Grocery Store and Cultural Market (W917) - The Cotton Club is an important historical asset for both the Eastside district and the entire Gainesville community. In its heyday, this once-popular venue was host to such performers as James Brown, Brook Benton, and BB King. CRA is a proud partner working to restore this historic building, which will serve as a neighborhood center for recreational, social, educational, and retail opportunities.
Complimentary to the restoration of the Cotton Club, the CRA has budgeted $50,000 in FY2007 for rehabilitation of the adjacent Perryman's grocery storefront. Building off of the unique social and cultural offerings of the Cotton Club, the revitalization of this historic grocery will enhance the vitality of the site and the surrounding neighborhood. Therefore, staff also proposed in the 2008 budget funding $50,232 for interior rehabilitation of the Perryman's building. Interior improvements will include installation of a commercial kitchen, as well as refrigeration units to both store and display prepared and unprepared food that may be cooked and sold onsite.
In conjunction with the above mentioned physical improvements, staff proposed budgeting $22,000 for programming at the Cotton Club/Perryman's site in order to establish, advertise, and recruit vendors for an outdoor cultural market, a recurring event unlike anything else in Gainesville. The market will emphasize the City's diverse ethnic and multicultural offerings and feature an eclectic array of prepared food, grown food, and other one-of-a-kind handmade items. Staff envisions the market will develop into destination event, drawing visitors from around the City to visit and shop in the Eastside. The Perryman's market will also increase opportunities for local entrepreneurship; vendors can prepare food in the on-site kitchen and sell their wares at the market or in the grocery itself. Additionally, merchants at the market will have the possibility of selling their goods inside the store, as allowed through a juried process. Staff anticipates that the investment in locally-oriented retail activities at the Cotton Club/Perryman's site will create a spin-off effect that fosters opportunities for the establishment of locally owned restaurant and catering businesses in the community.
The Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, Inc. is interested in moving forward with the design of the grocery store but do to a lack of available funds for this work have requested that the CRA release a portion of the $122,000 budgeted to the project. On June 30th, 2007, this non-profit organization submitted a second Special Category Grant application to the State of Florida. This grant will cover the build out of the Cotton Club Hall and cover the local cost share to complete the Perryman's Grocery Store. However, if successful, funds would not be paid out until June 2008. In the meanwhile, if architectural drawings for the building were available now they could begin to submit additional grant applications as most grant applications require submission of architectural drawings. Therefore they are requesting that $25,000 be allowed to be allocated for that purpose and only the remaining $25,000 of the FY 2007 funding be required to meet the 1.5 to 1 match required currently by the CRA.
Please note that this request for the grocery store is separate from the stabilization of the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, Inc. which we have currently engaged an architect, Jay Reeves, and are in the pre-construction phase. The funds for Phase 1 include $350,000 State Historic Preservation Grant. $70,710 Local Cost Share incl. $10,000 CRA and $20,000 City of Gainesville previously donated. The funds total $420,710 and are committed to the stabilization of the hall as outlined in the scope of work contracted with the State. Specifically the Scope of Work is defined as follows: Restoration of exterior and rehabilitation of interior of the structure for use as a community center, museum and meeting hall.
Fiscal note
$50,000 has been budgeted for FY2007 in account #621-790-W917-5520 and an additional $72,232 has been budgeted for FY2008.
Recommendation
Executive Director to the CRA: 1) Approve release of $25,000 of FY 2007 grant funding, without requirement of a local match, for architectural drawings and civil engineering site plans for the rehabilitation of Perryman's Grocery Store; and 2) authorize the Executive Director to execute an agreement with The Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, Inc., a Florida non-profit corporation, for expenditure of the grant funds.