VISTA -- For years, the Dura Paint building on Main Street looked like an old-fashioned hardware store. Beige exterior walls. A boring brown sign.

Now, it has a bit more pizazz. There's a bold red stripe above the entrance, highlighted by a gleaming white sign.

"You can see it from two blocks down the road," said owner Mark Olinger, who upgraded the exterior last fall with financial aid from the Vista Village Business Association.

The association's facade improvement program, launched in 2006, doles out small grants to downtown businesses that want to improve the exteriors of their buildings, many of which are decades old.

The upgrades can be anything from a new awning to a total rehab, said Janet Puckett, the association's executive director.

"Just a new coat of paint makes a huge impact to the appearance of downtown," Puckett said. "We're just trying to offer a little carrot."

While the program is administered by the business association, the money pot -- $10,000 a year -- comes from the city.

Nine businesses, including the Pepper Tree Frosty restaurant and Antiques on Main, have used the program to fund an exterior makeover, Puckett said. Others are in the planning stages.

The owner of Allen's Alley cafe, just a few hundred yards from the showpiece Vista Village shopping center, recently received nearly $1,900 in city money to repaint his aging building in green and peach.

"I'd been planning on doing it, but because of that incentive I was able to do it that much quicker," owner Charlie Harvey said.

The grants are doled out on a first come, first served basis, said Gumaro Escarcega, an executive assistant with the business association.

The amounts vary by project. Businesses can apply for up to 50 percent of their project costs, with a cap of $2,000. After the association approves their requests, businesses have 90 days to complete the improvements, Escarcega said.

"We want to have more applications than money to give out -- that's our goal," Escarcega said. "We're not there yet."

The Vista Village Business Association serves as a booster group for the city's historic downtown and Santa Fe Avenue Corridor.

This fiscal year, City Hall has provided $40,000 of the organization's $138,000 budget. The rest comes from fundraising and annual fees levied against approximately 300 businesses in the Central Vista Business Improvement District.

Only businesses within that improvement district, an area along South Santa Fe Avenue and Vista Village Drive, are eligible for facade improvement money.

"The city benefits if we have a pleasant, aesthetically desirable downtown," Puckett said. "We're hoping it will create a domino effect and everyone in the (business improvement district) will use the program at least once."

Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 901-4062 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.

Related links:

www.vvba.org