News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Rusty Petunia owner Laura Shearer organizes some pillows at her store in Alpena on Tuesday.

Three businesses in Downtown Alpena are vying to be selected to receive $25,000 from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Match on Main program.

Of the three, the Alpena Downtown Development Authority will submit funding applications from two of them. The MEDC could then choose one of the two for the grant.

During its meeting Tuesday, the board picked a project submitted by Family Enterprise to send to the state because all of its filing requirements were met.

The other two applications, from the Rusty Petunia and the Red Brick Tap and Barrel, were incomplete.

Of those two, whichever submits the needed information to the DDA first, will have their plan submitted to the state.

The MEDC can only select one of the two projects submitted by the DDA, and there is no guarantee that either is selected for grant funding, DDA Executive Director Anne Gentry said.

Family Enterprise’s project includes renovating its building to rent out space to up to six small businesses.

Red Brick Tap and Barrel would use the money to create an outdoor dining space for up to 40 people.

The Rusty Petunia wants to renovate its upstairs, which is underutilized and currently used for storage.

Gentry said the deadline to submit the applications to the MEDC is Friday, and the state will announce the grant recipients before the end of the month.

“All of these projects fall under what the program is geared toward. It is to address under-utilized space,” she said. “These are the types of projects that could normally be difficult to get funding for, so this is a great program and I hope one of our local businesses gets selected.

Only five of the board members voted on how to select the projects. Three–Cory Canute, Cristi Johnson, and Todd Britton–all abstained from the vote.

Canute owns the Red Tap Brick and Barrel, Johnson works at Family Enterprise, and Britton has had conversations about doing the project for Canute.

Gentry is waiting for the two businesses to submit detailed contractor design plans and quotes to package with the rest of their application. If they fail to do so, their application will not move forward.

“We wouldn’t submit them without all of the information,” DDA President Mike Mahler said. “They would be dead on arrival for sure.”