Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – It’s been four years now that Springfield’s Isringhausen Imports has been giving cash awards to small businesses who want to start up and operate in downtown Springfield. The deadline is Labor Day to apply for this year’s cycle of “DRIVE” grants. Cainan Barnett, Marketing Manager, talks about it with Will Stevenson on the WTAX Morning Newswatch.
Barnett talked about how the idea for the grant came about, “Jeff Isringhausen is very passionate about downtown and saw the slow down trend of businesses and foot traffic in the downtown area. He came up with this idea that if we can jump start some businesses to get them to locate downtown and fill some of the empty buildings that we could provide a more vibrant more thriving downtown facility.”
In the search for a winner for the grant, Barnett stated, that they are considering what is missing in the downtown area and of course someone interested in keeping their business downtown long-term. Recipients of the grant would have 12 to 18 months to move to downtown.
Applicants will have the opportunity to present their ideas to Isringhausen management later in September, shark tank style, for the opportunity to win the $20,000 small business grant. Ideally Isringhausen management would like for the entrepreneur to have an idea of where in downtown they would like to move their business to.
Last year A Taste of Seoul, Golden Hour Bake House, and Arrowroot Coffee were awarded the DRIVE grant. Barnett stated that there isn’t a set number of recipients that will be awarded this year, it depends on the applications they receive.
