Gainesville City Commission allocates $78k in GCRA funds to Matheson History Museum, $52k to Seagle Building

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During the morning session of their April 16 meeting, the Gainesville City Commission voted to grant $78,307 in GCRA funds to the Matheson History Museum, $36,696 more than the staff recommendation, and they granted $52,512 to the Seagle Building.

Daniel Blumberg, Project Manager for the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area (GCRA), reminded Commissioners that $338,000 in GCRA funding was allocated to the business improvement grants for FY 2026, split between two cycles of $169,000 each. The programs has three tiers of awards:

• Tier 1 (up to $5k) – $16,900 (10% of total);
• Tier 2 (up to $50k) – $67,600 (40% of total);
• Tier 3 (up to $150k) – $84,500 (50% of total).

Any specific parcel is limited to lifetime caps of $5,000 for Tier 1 grants, $50,000 for Tier 2 grants, and $150,000 for Tier 3 grants.

Seagle Building requested $52,512

In this cycle, the Seagle Building requested $52,512 for planned improvements that will cost at least $105,024; the Downtown Advisory Board (DAB) recommended awarding them $52,512, which would increase their lifetime amount to $147,512, when added to a previous award of $95,000.

Matheson History Museum requested $102,102.50

The Matheson History Museum originally requested $102,102.50 for planned improvements that will cost at least $204,205 in this cycle; the DAB recommended awarding them $41,611 ($9,623 from Tier 2 and $31,988 from Tier 3), which would increase their total award to $81,988, when added to a previous award of $40,377 of Tier 2 funds. Tier 3 awards must be approved by the City Commission.

Blumberg said that if additional funding had been available under Tier 3, the DAB would have recommended granting the Matheson’s full request, but only about $32k remained in Tier 3 after the $52k grant to the Seagle Building; the Seagle Building ownership group had deferred part of its request in the last cycle to allow other organizations to get grants. The renovation work at the Matheson would improve ADA access and make other improvements that would allow the building to be reopened to the public. 

Staff recommendation

Staff recommended approving $52,512 for the Seagle Building and $41,611 for the Matheson History Museum ($9,623 to get to the Tier 2 max and $31,988 from Tier 3). All funds come from the GCRA, and the application deadline for the next funding cycle is August 3. 

Public comment

During public comment, Matheson History Museum President John Barrow asked Commissioners to fund the full $102k. 

Commissioner James Ingle said, “I can certainly see the benefit of trying to get extra money on the front end for keeping the building from falling apart further,” but he wasn’t initially in favor of “trying to adjust the program on the fly” if the next round is coming in a few months.

Commissioner Casey Willits, pointing to recent changes that enabled the larger business improvement grants in the program, said he didn’t want “to necessarily change.” He said the Matheson History Museum is “important to the whole area,… [but] I think we need to stick with this.”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut: “The building is just getting worse each month… It seems to me that we just need to try to fund it now, so that they can go in and make the necessary changes or improvements.”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, “The issue I have is funding it incrementally. The building is just getting worse each month… It seems to me that we just need to try to fund it now, so that they can go in and make the necessary changes or improvements.”

Mayor Harvey Ward asked how much money would be available in the next cycle, and Blumberg said there were carry-over funds of $36,696 that were not awarded in the current cycle, and those funds would be added to the $169,000 that was originally allocated for the next cycle. 

Mayor Harvey Ward: “I always say that I hate to mess with process — and then here I go, trying to mess with process every time — but if we were going to award $62,000 or so in August or September,… I would prefer to just go ahead and fund what we’re going to do in six months, anyway.”

Ward said, “So, to be abundantly clear, I want us to fund [the Seagle Building] for what has been recommended… I always say that I hate to mess with process — and then here I go, trying to mess with process every time — but if we were going to award $62,000 or so in August or September,… that money is probably actually worth, in construction dollars, more like $60,000 by the time we get to that part of the year; the reality is that construction dollars are not getting less expensive.” He said that because the money would be less valuable later in the year, “I would prefer to just go ahead and fund what we’re going to do in six months, anyway.”

Chestnut agreed, “I’m just concerned about the state of the facility in six months — it’s going to continually deteriorate. So if we could allocate the funds, get it moving now, hopefully we could bring it to completion.”

Blumberg suggested zeroing out the Tier 1 awards for the next cycle, which would free up an additional $16,900; he said organizations that planned to apply for Tier 1 funds could apply under Tier 2, which is a difference of one point on the scoring.

Willits said he didn’t like the idea of dipping into Tier 1 funds and said those funds could be used to post signs near The Streatery, telling the public that the businesses on the street are open during construction.

Blumberg clarified that $16,900 in Tier 1 funds were not awarded in the first cycle, and Tier 1 funds are awarded on a rolling basis; so right now, the full amount of $33,800 is available. Tier 2 and Tier 3 grants have an application deadline of August 3 for the next cycle, and those will be ranked and awarded after the deadline. He added that the GCRA is already looking at a Streatery-specific business improvement grant program that could assist businesses with signage.

Ingle said he was comfortable with rolling the unused funds from the first cycle ($36,696) into Tier 3, but he was hesitant to spend the Tier 1 funds allocated to the next cycle. 

Adding $36,696 in carry-over funds to the recommended award of $41,611 totals $78,307

Chestnut asked staff whether funds could be consolidated to get to $102,000 for the Matheson History Museum, but Blumberg said the only way to do that would be to tap into second-cycle funds; the unused funds from the first cycle could be used to increase the Matheson’s award to $78,307, which is $23,795.50 short of their request. 

Chestnut said, “I really, really would like to complete the Matheson Center at this point.” She asked whether anybody “can help me find some more money.”

Interim City Manager Andrew Persons said signage is already being designed for The Streatery construction period, and the grants mentioned by Blumberg are for “further business support.”

In response to a question from Ward, Barrow said the final payment for the Matheson construction contract would probably be “six months from now,” so the Matheson could potentially get second-cycle funds in time to make that payment.

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said, “I like following all the processes and making sure that we’re going forward with everything in that way, but I think we are already changing the process by taking money that would be rolled-over funds and giving it back to the Matheson.” He didn’t support reducing future Tier 1 or Tier 2 funds: “That’s going a little step more than where I would be comfortable,… but I think it is a great success to find a way to get… an additional $78,000 that we’d be doing today… as they’re going forward with construction.”

Commissioner Ed Book: “I feel like we should stick with the work that was provided by the staff and the evaluators and not attempt to change it on the fly.”

Commissioner Ed Book was concerned about making exceptions to the process and how that might affect requests from nonprofits in the future: “I feel like we should stick with the work that was provided by the staff and the evaluators and not attempt to change it on the fly.”

Motion

Chestnut pointed out that they have carry-over funds because no organizations qualified for Tier 1 funds in the first cycle, and she made a motion to award $52,512 to the Seagle Building and $78,307 to the Matheson History Museum. Ingle seconded the motion.

Eastman was concerned that no organizations had qualified for Tier 1 funds in the first cycle, and he supported looking at ways to “simplify that process and make sure that we’re getting more folks in here so we’re not having whatever seems to be the barrier.” Ward agreed that he would like to get to a point where all the Tier 1 funds are awarded in every cycle, “and we need to do something, tweak those rewards requirements a little bit, to make sure that that gets spent down every time, so we’re not tempted to do this every time.”

The motion passed 6-0, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker absent.