DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The city of Daytona Beach is offering incentives to businesses looking to invest in certain redevelopment areas.
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Business owners can receive $50,000 or 80 percent of the projects total cost for interior and exterior improvements. Loans have a zero percent interest rate and are forgivable in two years.
The grants can only be used in the city’s five community redevelopment areas which is Midtown, Main Street, Ballough Road, South Atlantic and Downtown.
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Tom Caffrey, owner of World’s Most Famous Brewery, has owned the brewery on Main Street for six years but believes with more plans in the works to bring new businesses to the area, the future is becoming even brighter.
“We’ve only got about 20-ish businesses open from the beach to the river and I think if we could get that number up to like 35 or so and make it more of a destination rather than just a few spotty things,” Caffrey said.
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Owner of Punk Rock Pizza, Grady McCarty, has already taken advantage of the grant program and said it’s a good way to make sure people invest in the community long term.
“It is a very good way of doing it, so no one tries to scam the system, get a quick $50,000 and just be gone. They want to make sure you’re at least doing as hard of work as you can to at least be open for two years,” said McCarty.
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