CHICKASHA – A central business district building grant that initially received the City Council’s blessing a year ago nearly foundered in a narrow, split vote Aug. 5.
Based on a preliminary project cost estimate, the council on Aug. 21, 2023, endorsed a CBD grant to reimburse Open Skies Group up to $160,000 for renovation of a building at 611 W. Chickasha Ave. that previously housed the Chickasha schools’ bus garage.
Leandro David Da Silva told Southwest Ledger last year that his wife, Nathaly, has long harbored a dream of operating an event venue for weddings, parties and meetings. The Carrollton, Texas, couple found what they wanted in Chickasha and bought the building in November 2021, Da Silva said.
“My wife loved the string of street lights downtown,” he said. “And everybody we met was so welcoming to us.”
“The Gathering” opened for business late last month. Annual revenues from hosting and catering events are projected to exceed $400,000 and eventually more than a dozen employees are expected to be hired, Da Silva told the Chickasha Economic Development Council.
Da Silva’s Open Skies LLC remodeled the 8,000 square-foot building, which was constructed 98 years ago.
Expenses included more than $97,000 for a water line and interior plumbing for new restrooms, $66,000 for electrical improvements, $22,600 for flooring, almost $46,500 for fire protection, $77,000 for an HVAC system, more than $7,000 for new windows, $7,300 for an electric chair lift capable of carrying up to 1,000 pounds, and other expenses, such as restoration of the walls and ceilings, roof repairs, painting, hand rails for the stairs, and a new steel door.
CBD grant applicants are reimbursed $1 for every $3 of private funds invested in rehabilitation of property located between First and Seventh streets and Kansas and Choctaw avenues, if the property is used for retail trade that produces sales taxes or use taxes for the City of Chickasha.
Da Silva submitted receipts for $366,049 in expenses and thus the reimbursement grant was $122,016. However, he told the Ledger he actually spent more than $500,000 on the renovation project and also intends to construct a new sidewalk in front of the building.
The grant application sailed through the council in August 2023 without opposition. One year later, with a new council, the grant was narrowly approved, 5-4. Mayor Zach Grayson and council members Georgianne Hebblethwaite, Kea Ginn, Erica Alexander and John Smith voted “yes,” but Councilmen Charlie Burruss, Brian Gerdes, Kelly Boyd and Oscar Nelson turned thumbs down.
“The next day my telephone blew up with phone calls, text messages and emails about that vote,” Jim Cowan, president of the CEDC, told the Ledger. Several calls were from prospective building grant applicants, he said.
The Da Silvas sold some property in Texas to help finance the money they invested in renovating the building, Da Silva told the Ledger. The couple haven’t moved to Chickasha but are thinking about buying a lot there and building a house, said Da Silva, who owns a construction company in Carrollton.
“There is a public perception that the City of Chickasha is spending lots of money in downtown,” Cowan said. “But during my presentation to the City Council” on Aug. 5, City Manager Keith Johnson “confirmed that the city doesn’t have a dedicated expense line for downtown in the city’s annual budget.”
The funding for central business district “building grants” is derived from an economic development sales tax that expired several years ago, Cowan noted. “That tax revenue was collected but wasn’t spent for several years” until the CBD grant program was created, he related. “Private investment is fueling the revitalization of downtown Chickasha.”