Officials and property owners have held dozens of planning meetings and endured occasional heckling from skeptics. But last summer, after being rejected the year before, Pulaski received word from the state that it was chosen to receive $1 million over two years in federal Community Development Block Grant funds.

Five months later, all the required paperwork has been worked out and on Tuesday, if the Pulaski Town Council does as expected, a contract with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development will be signed and grant money will finally be available to interested downtown property owners.

Pulaski's plan for revitalizing downtown includes purchasing and renovating two properties and demolishing another. It will also offer carrots on strings to several property owners whose buildings have either been condemned or are slowly becoming unsound.

The grant funds will be added to money invested by individual property owners to improve 16 building facades and renovate or create 28 upper-story apartments. Other downtown property owners may still choose to participate.

"But the bottom line is you have to spend some of your own money to get the grant funds," said Pulaski Economic Development Director John White. "Success means getting the private sector involved and believing this will work."

White emphasized that the plan focuses on housing rehabilitation as well as storefront improvements and economic development.

"It's a very holistic approach," he said. "The ultimate goal is economic viability with the added benefit of improved housing."

As far as the housing is concerned, however, government money always comes with strings attached.

About 60 percent of the apartments rehabilitated or created must be reserved for low- to moderate-income residents for up to 10 years. Property owners can lower the number of years required by increasing their personal investment, White said.

In addition to housing and storefront improvements, the town will install 1,600 feet of fiber optic cable to help bring high-speed Internet service downtown to attract technology-related businesses and young entrepreneurs. Wireless Internet access will also be made available.

"We would like to be able to build on the success we've had with the two call centers already located downtown," said White.

For its part, Pulaski plans to purchase the old General Chemical foundry and office buildings on First Street and stabilize the structures in hope of attracting a private investor. White said the historic structures might be converted into a type of arts incubator with working artists inside the foundry available to tourists coming into town along its ongoing New River Trail extension project.

To pull all of this off and get the grant, Pulaski had to agree to pony up $628,000 in local funds or labor and get about $775,000 in private investment commitments from property owners. Another $952,000 in grant funds already received for the trail extension bring the project total to about $3.3 million.

We're excited about the opportunity and can't wait toget started on redoing some apartments," said Martha Jackson, a lifelong Pulaski resident, who, with her husband, Bobby Jackson, owns a three-story Main Street building beside the Pulaski Theatre, which is scheduled to reopen next summer.

Martha Jackson said the couple intended to get started on rehabilitating some of the building's apartments four years ago, but running their farms and other rental properties delayed the effort.

"When we heard about the grant funding, it was like a catalyst for us," said Martha Jackson. "I think this kind of project will do downtown a world of good."

She said the couple would be investing about $200,000 into the project.

The town already has hired a Richmond consultant, K.W. Poore, to help manage the project and Woodford Engineering of Roanoke to consult on how best to bring old and new apartments up to state standards.

White said he can envision a downtown with speciality shops, entertainment through a restored theater and new restaurant or two and more tourism dollars brought in through the New River Trail extension and downtown landmarks such as the restored train station, museum and fine arts center.

"We don't have any illusions that downtown can be the retail center it once was," said White. "That type of retail is already following a different model. But we can create a new economic model for downtown that focuses on the Four Ts: trail, tourism, theater and technology."