The Southwestern Michigan Association of REALTORS, will be offering grants to community and/or neighborhood organizations for creating small, inexpensive, and incremental community projects. The projects should foster activities that can help to improve a neighborhood and make it a better place to live, work, and play.  The Association’s grant program is called “Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper Placemaking Challenge”.

The grants will be funded through the National Association of REALTORS, REALTOR Party’s Placemaking Program.  The funding for projects ranges from $500 up to $3,500. There will be two grants available. The amount could be a portion of or the total cost for the project. The NAR has the final approval for the grant amount and acceptance of the project.

The Southwestern Michigan Association will be accepting applications for the grants from now until Feb. 9. The grant application and more information about the types of projects that could be funded can be found at swmar.com. At the top of the homepage click on “2018 LQC Placemaking Application.”

The grant application must describe the project and have a local REALTOR as a sponsor for it and have a before photo of the space to be improved. The first project must be completed by June 1, 2018.  The second project approved must be completed by Sept. 30, 2018. All project applications will be reviewed and grant awardees will be announced no later than March 19, 2018.

In 2017, SWMAR awarded grants to three area groups for very unique projects. The first grant went to join forces with St. Joseph Charter Township to provide seed money to help with the first phase of the Hickory Creek Nature Trail development. At Cleveland Avenue, the township began the trail with a parking area. The grant was used to provide park benches, picnic tables and a grill along the creek for nature viewing and for installing signage to make people aware of the park.  Chris Marzke, @properties, St. Joseph was the Realtor sponsor for the Hickory Creek Nature Trail grant.

A $2,000 grant was given to Chikaming Township Park Board to purchase a kiosk and trail signs and to fund the printing of a mountain bike trail map to be available for trail users at the kiosk.  The Mountain Bike Trail was started in January 2017 and the four miles of trail was open in May. Maureen Clup, RE/MAX Harbor Country was the Realtor sponsor for the Mountain Bike Trail grant

A third grant for $2,000, provided by the Michigan REALTORS, MI Great Places Program was awarded to the City of South Haven to improve the children’s play area at the Optimist Tot Lot Park located at 191 Bailey. The project included replacing a rough, sandy and dirt filled area under the children’s imaginative play structure with 1500-square-feet of rubber mulch.  The area required the city to do extensive work to remove the old surface before installing the new surface material. The grant, sponsored by Andy Klavins, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, South Haven, was used to provide the rubber mulch.

Some other examples of projects that have received grants in other states are community gardens, pedestrian plazas, dog parks, and alley activation as a gathering place.

Those who have any questions about this grant program should contact the Southwestern Michigan Association of REALTORS at (269) 983-6375.

The Southwestern Michigan Association of REALTORS, Inc. is a professional trade association for real estate licensees who are members of the National Association of REALTORS and ancillary service providers for the real estate industry in Van Buren, Berrien and Cass counties.  The Association can be contacted at (269) 983-6375 or through their website at swmar.com