Campustown may face revitalization beyond the construction brought by Kingland Systems.

Campustown and the City of Ames recently approved a new Facade Grant Program.

The program will allow businesses in the Campustown district to apply for grants to renovate their buildings. The application phase will begin within the next week to select the two pilot businesses that will be used as prototypes.

The program will be funded $30,000 total that will be split into two $15,000 matching grants for any building that applies. That means that each applicant business will have to spend $15,000 in order to receive the full grant. If the business spends less than $15,000, they will receive a match of whatever they spend.

“We want a design that is different from the Downtown District,” said Richard Reynolds, president of the Campustown Action Association.

The new Facade Grant Program is based on five major principles for a new Campustown. The goal is to create a transparent, social, diverse, historic and identifiable environment for students and families.

Campustown recently released an idea book outlining their concepts for the program.

“The goal of the program is to encourage and maintain the diverse culture and ‘uniqueness’ of Campustown, to create a vibrant and walkable Campustown, and to increase safety, security, and investment by property and business owners,” Reynolds said.

These five concepts are not required for a grant, but priorities will be given to projects that reflect the multiple concepts.

The program hopes to “open up” the businesses by adding large, transparent displays to encourage window shopping and increase safety.

“For Campustown, we like to see what’s going on in businesses, not only for window-shopping, but from a safety perspective as well,” said Kim Hanna, director of the Campustown Action Association.

Another major goal of the program is to create new, vibrant outdoor lighting. The goal is to create a uniform street light system, but give businesses the opportunity to have their own unique lighting system.

“We want the businesses to have new lighting, but we really want to keep the eclectic and diverse feel of all the different businesses,” Hanna said. “We don’t want to be a cookie-cutter, Disney World layout.”

The application process for businesses will begin within the next two weeks, but the pilot businesses won’t be selected until February’s City Council meeting. Construction would begin immediately after, with a projected finishing date of June 30, 2015.

No one will be required to participate in the grant program, and businesses will be allowed to keep their current building facades if they want.

“Campustown has many iconic businesses, but with the Facade Grant Program, we want everyone to be iconic in their own unique way,” Hanna said.