Efforts to rejuvenate Cottage Grove’s downtown area got a $200,000 boost recently. As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, the money will be used to help renovate the 115-year-old Bank Building on Main Street.
Workmen are stripping the building down to the original framework, all part of a million-dollar fixer-upper managed by a real estate broker, Len Blackstone.
Jared Sidman is with Mainstreet Cottage Grove. The group received a $200,000 revitalization grant from the State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO). He says when the Bank Building’s fully renovated in May 2020, it’ll help improve the local economy.
“Ever since logging took dive in the 1970s- 80s, there was never too big a recovery here to offset that," Sidman tells KLCC. "(It) wasn’t helped by the ’07-08 recession and still being felt today.
"So, historical renovation is a really, really big way to stimulate economic growth, and there’s a lot of value in preserving history.”
The facility will also feature updated and improved housing, through upper-level apartments.
Copyright 2019, KLCC.