TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- About a half-dozen businesses will be getting a makeover with help from a project that's intended to spruce up downtown Tucson.

More than 20 businesses have applied for city grants that will go to fix up the exteriors of downtown buildings built before 1948. The grants must be matched by the businesses.

"The buildings could be very attractive rather than eyesores," said Donovan Durband of the Downtown Tucson Partnership. "A lot of them would be beautiful if we just restored them to what they were."

Up to eight buildings will be selected for the first phase, in which applicants will be given $7,500 to come up with design plans to refurbish the exteriors of their buildings, Durband said.

From there, a yet-to-be-determined number of winners will share in roughly $470,000. A building at mid-block is eligible for as much as $90,000, and more prominent corner locations are eligible for up to $125,000. The loan becomes a grant as long as the business owner matches it and maintains the property for 10 years.

Durband said the eight finalists will be picked on Aug. 8, and then a selection committee will choose between four and six projects that will share in the money.

The program comes after nearly three years of waiting and talk.

Developer John Wesley Miller, who is refurbishing an old building with a sushi restaurant and other uses, said he has been waiting for three years for the grants and has done much of the work himself already. He said he hopes he isn't discriminated against because of that.

"It's nice to see something happening," Miller said. "The city hasn't done much in helping people in private business who are spending the money."

The facade program will help make downtown more pleasant, he said.

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Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com

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