WATERVILLE -- Look for a more attractive waterfront, upgraded storefronts on Main Street and maybe a new business or two opening in downtown in the near future.

All those developments have become far more likely as a result of the city winning a $500,000 Downtown Revitalization Grant from the Community Development Block Grant program.

Waterville is the only community in the state to receive full funding for the grant in the latest application round, program manager Terry Ann Stevens said.

Stevens said her office awarded Presque Isle the remaining $250,000 in the program for this year.

Waterville Main Street executive director Shannon Haines and her staff worked with city officials to write the winning application.

Haines said the grant provides a significant pool of free money to draw from, as well as a remarkable level of flexibility in the use of that money.

"I think the really exciting thing about the Downtown Revitalization Grant is it provides funding for a variety of purposes," Haines said.

City Manager Michael J. Roy said the city plans to dedicate $210,000 of the grant, as well as $90,000 in city funds, to waterfront improvements at city-owned Head of Falls.

Roy said the city already has invested a sizable amount of money in bringing water, sewer and electricity to the waterfront.

What the grant will permit, he said, is the means to make those improvements that are visible to the community.

Those improvements include a gateway plaza for the Kennebec Messalonskee Trails system. Roy said the details have yet to be worked out, but the plaza likely will incorporate paver blocks and an information stand of some sort, possibly a gazebo.

The plan also is to provide handicap access to the Two Cent Bridge, develop walkways to connect the Gateway Plaza to Temple Street and accessible parking, and bring benches, trash cans and improved lighting to a Head of Falls with landscaping enhancements.

Such investments, Roy said, are as much about business as they are about aesthetics.

"We are trying to market the (waterfront)," he said. "We are trying to make it so that people are interested in visiting the place."

Roy said the city envisions Head of Falls as a mixed-use zone, one featuring commercial, residential and public properties and purposes.

Haines said the application emphasized the connection between downtown and the waterfront and the importance of investing in both.

"We want to have an attractive waterfront connected to downtown," she said, "so that people moving into new housing units (in downtown) have a place to go to walk their dogs."

Investments in rental housing units -- either new or renovated -- is one of the permitted uses of the $275,000 in grant funds targeted for downtown revitalization.

Those funds will be available to downtown business and property owners in a competitive application process that requires applicants to match however much in grant money they receive -- grant awards are limited to $25,000.

Haines said a store owner might elect to invest $50,000 in building improvements. Under the grant program, that owner could obtain enough free money to fund half the project, she said.

A final permitted use for the downtown fund, Haines said, is money to invest in businesses of five people or fewer -- so called microenterprises. Business owners would have to be of low to moderate income to qualify, she said.

"It could be a brand new business trying to locate in the downtown," Haines said, "or it could be one that has been in downtown but just hasn't had the capital to make improvements."

Haines said the application and criteria in which to judge proposed projects is still being developed but should be completed in the next month or two.

The final $15,000 from the grant, in addition to $20,000 in city money, will be dedicated to downtown streetscape enhancements, including bicycle racks, banners, trash cans and signage.

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com