The Commercial Facades program (up to $650K per award, minimum six to eight blighted buildings, non-entitlement cities under 50,000 population only) closed applications August 17. The companion Streetscapes program, capped at $250K and restricted to cities that already completed a Facades project, closed May 22. Neither program requires a formal district; it's a straight CDBG-funded state grant. But it's exactly the kind of small-town downtown capital Plat Street's Block Ops and Metes & Bounds readers in Iowa and similarly-structured states should be tracking as a non-district alternative or complement to BID/CID formation. No 2026 award list was published as of this research pass.

Source: Iowa Economic Development & Finance Authority, Downtown Revitalization Fund program page