In January, HGTV announced its latest and largest renovation show, “Hometown Takeover,” in which Ben and Erin Napier, the hosts of “Hometown,” will take over and restore an entire town. Arcadia has applied and is hoping to be the next town HGTV visits.
Arcadia’s Heather Souder told The Reporter that HGTV is having a competition to see which small town will be the next one to get their attention.
“We had heard through word of mouth from several people in town that HGTV was going to have this competition,” Souder said. “People thought it was a good idea and that we should do this.”
The requirement for restoration were threefold: The town must have fewer than 40,000 residents, have homes and buildings that are architecturally interesting, and have a downtown area in need of restoration.
The submission deadline was Friday, Feb. 7, and in addition to the required photographs and essay, Arcadia had a video produced, which is at over 31,000 views in just four days. You can watch the video at this link.
“We are very happy and surprised about the exposure our video has already gotten on Facebook,” Souder told The Reporter.
According to Souder, Arcadia is going to be revitalized with or without HGTV’s help.
“We are still moving forward,” Souder said. “If Arcadia does not get chosen, we are applying for grants to put in a splashpad at the park.”
Souder said the town does not qualify for the kind of façade grant Cicero recently received, but there are other grant and funding options available.
“We are going to be grant-heavy,” Souder said. “We are going to apply for anything that we can that will beautify Arcadia, get our building back in shape where they can harbor businesses. We don’t want to tear anything down. We just want love brought in here so we can build it back to its former glory.”
Sure hope HGTV chooses Arcadia for the make over. It is a wonderful town with good people, Heather Souder is one of them.