One Block. Big Possibilities: DDC Pursues $500,000 Downtown Investment
Driving Dickinson County is bringing businesses, property owners and community partners together around an opportunity that could bring significant new investment to downtown Abilene — and demonstrate what can happen when a community moves in one direction.
What could happen if, instead of improving one building at a time, a community transformed an entire downtown block at once?
Driving Dickinson County is working to find out.
DDC is preparing an application for the Kansas Department of Commerce’s Building Local Opportunity through Coordinated Kansas Investment — BLOCK — program, a new initiative designed to create a concentrated, visible transformation within a single downtown block.
Abilene is one of six Kansas communities invited to apply for the competitive program. One community will ultimately be selected to receive up to $500,000 toward its proposed project.
“Opportunities like this don’t come along every day, and when they do, you have to be ready to move,” said Natalie Muruato, CEO of Driving Dickinson County. “This is about bringing people together, leveraging investment and showing what’s possible when a community decides to move forward together. It may start with one block, but the momentum doesn’t have to stop there.”
A Block Ready for Investment
DDC’s proposed project focuses on a portion of NW Third Street between Buckeye Avenue and Spruce Street in downtown Abilene, encompassing approximately seven properties on both sides of the street.
If awarded, the grant could support coordinated improvements across participating properties, creating the kind of concentrated transformation that can be difficult to achieve when buildings are improved individually over a period of years.
Potential work includes exterior improvements such as façades, paint, windows and masonry repairs, along with other improvements designed to strengthen the appearance and function of the block.
But the physical improvements are only part of the project.
The BLOCK program is built around collaboration, bringing property owners, businesses, local government and community organizations together around a shared investment. DDC has been working with participating businesses and property owners, the City of Abilene, the Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau and other community partners to develop the proposal and identify opportunities to leverage additional local investment.
The Abilene City Commission recently approved a letter of support for the application.
Additional conversations have included potential investment in Little Ike Park, creating an opportunity to connect improvements to privately owned properties with investment in surrounding public spaces.
An Opportunity Years in the Making
Downtown improvements aren’t a new conversation in Abilene.
Plans for streetscape and public-space improvements have been discussed for years, but large-scale projects require something communities don’t always have at the same time: funding, property-owner participation, community support and the capacity to coordinate it all.
The BLOCK program creates an opportunity to bring those pieces together — and on an unusually fast timeline.
Rather than funding improvements that unfold over several years, BLOCK is designed around concentrated implementation. If Abilene is selected, participating partners would have only a matter of weeks to move from plans to visible progress, with the project required to be completed before mid-December.
That means much of the work has to happen before an award is ever announced. DDC is already working with partners to identify projects, develop cost estimates and prepare to move quickly if Abilene is selected.
Community members have also stepped forward to support the effort. Earlier this month, the Abilene Convention & Visitors Bureau issued a call for volunteers willing to help with the transformation if Abilene is selected for the BLOCK grant. With volunteer sign-ups now closed, that early community response is another piece of the preparation underway for the rapid construction timeline that would follow an award.
Investment That Doesn’t Stop at One Block
While the BLOCK program concentrates the state investment within a defined project area, DDC is planning for the potential impact to reach beyond it.
If Abilene is awarded the BLOCK grant, DDC plans to offer up to 10 matching grants of $1,000 each to downtown businesses outside the project block for improvements completed during the BLOCK construction period.
The matching-grant program would give additional businesses an opportunity to invest in their properties while the larger transformation is underway, extending visible improvements beyond the boundaries of the grant-funded block.
It reflects a larger principle behind Driving Dickinson County’s approach to economic development: one investment can become a catalyst for another.
A renovated storefront can encourage a neighboring property owner to make an improvement. Outside investment can help spur local investment. And progress concentrated in one area can create momentum that reaches farther.
More Than a Grant Application
For Driving Dickinson County, pursuing BLOCK is part of a larger effort to bring outside resources into Dickinson County and turn those resources into tangible local investment.
That work often happens well before construction begins. It means identifying opportunities, building relationships, connecting organizations and being prepared when funding becomes available.
Regardless of the outcome of the competitive grant process, the work underway has already brought businesses, property owners and community partners together around what could be possible when improvements are approached collectively rather than individually.
What Happens Next
Driving Dickinson County will submit Abilene’s BLOCK application to the Kansas Department of Commerce by the September 30 deadline.
An award announcement is anticipated in October.
If Abilene is selected, the pace will accelerate quickly as DDC, participating property owners, businesses, contractors and community partners move from planning to implementation, with the transformation expected to be completed before December 15.
Until then, Driving Dickinson County is doing what economic development often requires long before the ribbon cutting: finding resources, bringing people to the table and preparing to act when opportunity arrives.
Because becoming roadmarkable isn’t about waiting for change to happen. It’s about recognizing an opportunity, investing in what comes next and working together to make it happen.
This opportunity may start with one block. The impact doesn’t have to stop there.
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