ODESSA, Texas — Downtown Odessa has grown over the last several years with new businesses, restaurants and entertainment opportunities coming in. As efforts continue to strengthen the heartbeat of town, the incentive for potential property owners to develop there improved on Tuesday night.
Odessa city leaders have now made the grant process faster. Since 2016, the Odessa Development Corporation has funded downtown infrastructure and façade grant programs, and with a quicker process for those grants in place, the hope is that will help progress downtown.
On the corner of Grant and Fifth Street, what was once Jim’s Big and Tall will soon see concrete replaced by cooking.
“When you look at things like Jim’s Big and Tall being transformed into a restaurant, it’s going to take – the owners are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Jeff Russell, Vice President of the Odessa Development Corporation. "This is an opportunity for ODC and the community to come alongside [and] help them with some of that critical work to give them that incentive to take the chance on downtown. Come on down, build that business and get things going downtown.”
Russell says they have helped many businesses over the years through this available funding.
“Façade grants have to do with the outside of the building," Russell said. "The infrastructure grants have [to do] with work that may…be required to get the property up to code, such as fire sprinklers and those types of items.”
Both grants are significant for development and growth downtown.
“These types of programs are an incentive to bring restaurants and other types of businesses into downtown to help improve the overall aesthetic of downtown, and they’ve really been an important part of the work that has been done throughout the downtown area," Russell said.
Odessa Mayor Javier Joven believes the improved grant process is important in today’s economic climate.
“We’ve streamlined it, making it easier – making it an easier process for the citizens to be able to understand and go through – and to be able to get some help in revitalizing these old buildings that are downtown that have a lot of outdated facilities that need to come up to code," Mayor Joven said. "It’s very expensive in this time of inflation that we’re experiencing.”
While transforming downtown takes time, for Odessa, it has bettered the timeline.
“Quicker, easier, faster, more businesses downtown -- bottom line," Russell said.
Tuesday night's Odessa City Council meeting saw three grants approved for businesses doing work downtown. Downtown Odessa Inc. works closely with property owners during the grant program process, followed by ODC providing funding and city council’s final approval.