New location provides easier access to Peoples Capital Management clients

Peoples Capital Management opened for business in late June in a newly-remodeled building at 120 East Madison in Washington. The business was located near the Washington County Courthouse.

Matt Peoples said the move was made to make access to the business easier for clients. He said there are no curbs or stairs to climb and there is plenty of parking spaces in an adjacent parking lot on the property. He said that whenever court was in session at the courthouse, clients often had to park far away from the former location. That was an inconvenience, especially for older clients, he said.

Peoples Capital Management purchased the building in the spring of 2018 and worked with an architect and with Sarah Grunewaldt, Executive Director of Main Street Washington to get financing through a Downtown Investment Grant (DIG) to provide $30,000 to assist in the remodeling. The grant was developed through a partnership with the City of Washington to address downtown rehabilitation project over $100,000, according to Grunewaldt. 'What the City had found was that larger projects, while great for the community, were not creating enough taxable increment to utilize their only incentive, Tax Increment Financing (TIF).

Using the road map of the Washington Incentive Fund which Main Street Washington has operated for small projects since 2008, we created the DIG grant program to incentivize the reinvestment into our buildings with a tool that had more of a benefit” Grunewaldt said. Main Street Washington's Design committee manages the program and makes recommendation to City Council for grants awarded and paid out. Peoples said without the grant, the business probably would not have done as much remodeling as it did. He said the project was another in a series of projects that have been beneficial to the city because of similar grants. Washington has seen over $1.1 million of investment in the downtown with an investment from the City of $240,000. The funding is part of the City of Washington's municipal grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation and they graciously set aside that funding for these projects, Grunewaldt said.

Peoples said Ryan Shields at Washington State Bank was instrumental in helping to line up financing for the project and to offer advice along the way. He said City Building Inspector Steve Donnolly was also helpful.