Local entrepreneurs Marcus Doyle and Scott Haase recently purchased the former Tootie’s Downtown Lounge at 103 Market Alley and renamed the establishment Abner’s. At the recent Monmouth City Council meeting, Doyle and Haase submitted an application to receive reimbursement of renovations through the Downtown TIF Commercial Building Rehabilitation program, explains City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher:
“They are doing a lot of renovation work in there, about $172,000 in investments. A lot of it is going to be interior renovations. I think some of the main features of the renovation is that they is going to be putting in five of these full view overhead garage doors. It is also going to include some facade renovations, particularly on the front of the bar, on Market Alley itself. All the improvements did qualify for some reimbursement. I recommended according to our program guidelines, that we could reimburse up to $45,467 of that $172,000.”
Administrator Steinbrecher shares the Downtown TIF Rehabilitation program has been very successful in the last three or four years as close to $2 million in private investments has been made into the historic downtown buildings, which the city has been able to provide $400,000 in incentives.
