The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority used to focus on providing grants to private development projects.  These projects are now largely supported and being moved forward naturally by the marketplace.  Thus, these types of general partnership grants have mostly been eliminated.  For the next two years the DDA will focus mainly on energy conservation projects.  Their goal is to make downtown businesses and buildings as "green" as possible.

They have developed a new energy saving grant program that all businesses in the DDA area may apply for.  The program offers:

• A professional energy audit and consultation to develop improvements
• Installation of energy saving equipment such as windows and heating/cooling elements
• Matching grant participation in project costs up to $20,000

The Ann Arbor DDA has allocated $200,000 to furthering this project in the initial discovery stages.  This should allow 40 businesses to participate.  An additional $200,000 will be allocated for phase two which includes actually making energy saving improvements.

This new initiative is aligned with the DDA’s mission to use public money to spark private reinvestment.  

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