Palatine OKs TIF dollars for florist's facelift
After rejecting a village florist's request for a new sign along Palatine Road, the Palatine village council this month approved a measure to award the business $50,000 from a Tax Increment Financing district program created to help pay for exterior improvements.
Council members voted unanimously to give Kinsch's Village Florist and Garden Center the funding through the village's Downtown TIF District Facade Improvement program.
The money will pay for new sets of double doors, windows, awnings and siding, as well as a new wooden sign bearing the name of the shop at 301 Johnson St.
Diane Kinsch, who owns the store along with her husband Ken, said the new sign will do the most to help their 76-year-old business continue for generations to come.
"My father-in-law made those letters that are up out front now over 50 years ago," she said. "It's about time we got a new one."
Though excited to put the new sign on the building - Kinsch claimed she'll break out the champagne when it goes up - the business is still stinging from the village's rejection of its plan to place a sign along nearby Palatine Road. The village council voted 4 to 3 in February against a plan that would have erected a smaller version of the new sign on Palatine Road with an arrow pointing to the out-of-the-way business.
"We're thrilled that the village is helping us out but we wish we could've gotten that additional exposure on Palatine Road," Diane Kinsch said.
The business plans to make the upgrades in phases. The cost of planned work totals just over $100,000. Under the facade improvement program, Palatine will split the cost of improvements with participating businesses up to a certain point.
Deputy Village Manager Michael Jacobs said Kinsch's qualified for the maximum village contribution of $50,000.
Diane Kinsch said they hope to have the sign installed before their grand reopening of their Garden Center on April 12.
"We're real excited," she said. "We're the generation that has to move this business forward. We want to be here for another 75 years plus."