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DeKALB – DeKalb taxpayers will help Dairy Queen spruce up the restaurant’s exteriors – as part of a full corporate-mandated renovation – after its owners got approval from the City Council for a special grant of up to $37,500.
Robert Clark, franchise owner of the Dairy Queen at 1780 Sycamore Road, said he was told by the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based American Dairy Queen Corp. that he has to renovate the restaurant to coincide with corporatewide branding changes.
He and his wife, Tasha, said they knew that other area business owners had gotten money from the city for improvements, so they took a shot and asked for public money to help with their renovation.
“We just were checking because we saw that other businesses, like Bemis [auto dealership], had gotten money. So we just wanted to see if there was anything available” for our project, the Clarks said.
They talked to several city leaders, they said, and found out about the grant, which is offered through DeKalb’s business incentive program.
“They requested an architectural improvement program grant, which would be funded through TIF (tax increment financing) proceeds as a forgiveable loan,” Ellen Divita, the city’s community development director, told the City Council.
The restaurant will be converted from its existing 20-year-old “ice cream specialties” iteration to a new model that includes a sit-down family dining-style restaurant. The renovation is expected cost $200,000, according to documents the Clarks presented to the city.
The Clarks said they are in the process of starting to solicit bids for the work, and expect the entire renovation to be completed about Dec. 15.
The AIP usually allows a 50 percent match to businesses, up to a $20,000 maximum. But aldermen can approve higher amounts, which they did for this request. And, it’s mostly focused on the city’s central business district, but some other specific criteria makes other businesses eligible for the aid.
Dairy Queen qualified because it is located in a TIF district.
The money from the city grant can’t be used toward the interior renovations, according to business incentive program rules, but the Clarks can use it to fix up the outside of the establishment. To get the full $37,500, the Clarks will have to spend at no less than $75,000 on the exterior upgrades.
Divita explained that the Clarks would use the grant to do such work as create a brick facade on three sides of the building, upgrade windows, enhance exterior signage and more. Dairy Queen’s request depletes AIP grant funds for the year, city leaders said, but no other funding requests were pending or expected.
One resident expressed uneasiness at the meeting about awarding the grant.
“My concern is that general costs of remodel could get lumped into the proposed enhancement, thus getting the city and, ultimately the taxpayers, to foot more of the bill than the architectural improvement program is designed to fund,” former alderman Steve Kapitan said.
City Attorney Dean Frieders responded and said the city would be monitoring.
“There would be a detailed submission of all the costs to ensure that the costs that are being funded by the city’s grant are, in fact, eligible project costs,” Frieders said.
The last business to get an AIP grant was in 2015 when Chilton’s Sporting Goods, at 248 E. Lincoln Highway, got $17,840. In 2013, Responsive Roofing, 221 W. Lincoln Highway got a $5,005 grant, and the businesses in the strip at 850 to 852 S. Fourth St. got $18,334. All funds were for exterior facade improvements, according to Jo Ellen Charlon, a city planner.