Sheffield shops: Sheffield City Council offering to pay people £35,000 to open a business on Fargate
Sheffield City Council is set to pay up to £35,000 to encourage new businesses to open on prime city centre street.
The authority has launched a scheme offering grants to independent businesses who want to transform empty shops and underused spaces in and around Fargate.
The authority is using government money to ‘reinvent the area as a thriving social hub’. It says it has £250,000 to spend, equal to seven grants of the £35,000 maximum.
It must be spent on ‘agreed fit-out’ costs and is paid after items have been purchased, on proof of payment. The deadline to apply is August 14.
Fargate is having a £33m revamp set to complete by February. In recent years it has suffered a string of shop closures and shifted towards food and drink, leisure and cultural uses, although M&S still occupies its biggest shop.
The grant area includes Chapel Walk where the council is spending £1.24m on public art, lighting and shop front revamps in a bid to revive the once popular pedestrian route.