Grant Program History

Cool Cities Grants & Planning Programs

Michigan is becoming known as the home of "Cool Cities"! We launched the 2004 Cool City Pilot Program in April 2004 to support downtown neighborhood revitalization efforts. We learned that the Cool Cities Neighborhood award designation is immensely important to grant recipients. It has increased community pride, led to greater optimism for the future, energized local stakeholders, and has been a catalyst for local investment.

Building on the success of the 2004 pilot, we expanded the program to include the Michigan Main Street, Blueprints for Michigan's Downtowns, and Blueprints for Michigan's Neighborhoods. These three programs, along with the catalyst grant program, Neighborhoods in Progress are under the umbrella of Cool Cities and are the Cool Cities Grants & Planning Programs.

2003 – 2008 Cool Cities Neighborhood Award Designees – At a Glance (PDF)

2007
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority, Community Assistance Team offered the Cool Cities Main Street and Cool Cities Blueprints for Michigan's Downtowns programs for 2007. Congratulations to the award designees.

2006
Michigan is becoming known as the home of "Cool Cities"! Building on the success of the 2004 pilot and expansion of the program in 2005, we are pleased to announce a continuation of the grants and planning programs for 2006!

2005
The level of interest in Michigan's Cool Cities Initiative is overwhelming. The 2004 Cool City Pilot Program has been so successful that we've been inundated with inquiries about how to get involved in the 2005 program. We have been reviewing our progress over the last year to see how we could take a "great" program and make it even better.

2004 (pilot)
The 2004 Pilot Program was a success!