La Crosse looking to help match funds for downtown building improvements

Initial funds would be close to $150,000.

Some help for old building facades could be on the way soon for downtown La Crosse.

Executive director of the business group, Downtown Main Street, Robin Moses has been lobbying city hall to provide funding for matching grants to improve downtown buildings. 

Today, the city’s economic development commission considers the plan, which calls for initial funding close to $150,000.

“Some of them have been boarded up,” Moses said. “We need to elevate the condition and the look of those things because we’re really trying to make downtown stronger.”

She adds that some of the buildings need relatively small repairs, like tuck pointing and window repairs but even those can be overwhelming for some building owners. 

“There’s a lot of good things happening and we’re very fortunate for that, (but) we still have some properties that do need some work,” Moses said, adding they’ve been pushing for this help for some time.