- June 12, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
Twenty-one businesses in the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area will receive city grants to fix up their properties.
The City Council approved the grant awards Thursday, reversing course from an earlier decision. The Council also tightened the qualifications businesses will have to meet for future rounds of funding.
The grant program provides money to improve the aesthetics of a business or to increase the functional life of older commercial buildings. It became controversial earlier this year when two companies, the St. Petersburg Pregnancy Center and a Checkers restaurant franchise, qualified for the grants.
At a City Council meeting in April, critics said the pregnancy center, which does business as Next Stepp Pregnancy Center, was an anti-abortion center, and that the Checkers operation had other funding sources for building improvements. The City Council, which was required to accept or reject the entire list of…
