Delphi Preservation Society has completed two phases of its restoration of the Delphi Opera House, and is preparing for Phase III, which comes with a price tag of about $1.2 million.

Anita Werling, chairman of the Opera House advisory board, said Phase III involves removing the one-story structures behind the Opera House building and constructing a three-story addition that will match floor to floor with the historic building. She said the new addition will provide space for an elevator, two sets of fire stairs, and modern restrooms, making the facility handicapped accessible.

To help fund this construction phase, DPS has its eye on a Community Focus Fund (CFF) grant through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

Werling said DPS will ask the City of Delphi to apply for a $400,000 CFF grant on behalf of the DPS. The other $800,000 of the $1.2 million project would be raised by DPS, Werling explained.

“Applications for this grant have to come from the local governing body, which in this case is the City of Delphi, and the grant money would flow through the City,” she said.

Community Focus Fund grants come from the state’s Community Development Block Grant Program, which is federally funded. Werling said the Opera House project is a community development project because it will make a historic building handicapped accessible. The total project also will turn the Opera House into a community center with multiple meeting rooms and a theater for the performing arts, she said, and will enhance and revitalize the downtown.

A requirement of the grant is that persons of low and moderate income live within a certain radius of the project, as determined by a population study. Werling said the project meets that requirement.

The grant process also requires a public hearing. The legal notice of the hearing appeared in last week’s Comet. It is set for Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Delphi City Hall, prior to the Delphi City Council meeting.

Werling explained that the City will first apply with a proposal. Then there will be another public hearing in May, before the formal application is due in June.

The CFF grant requires a 10 percent local match, which would be $40,000. Werling said normally the local municipality is the source of that match. DPS will ask the City of Delphi to provide the match out of EDIT funds since the project is expected to stimulate downtown revitalization. Werling added that DPS could raise extra funds to cover the match, if need be.

Awards will be announced in August. Werling said the timing could be right to give an extra windfall to the project. She said DPS has applied to an out-of-state foundation for a challenge grant. If accepted for the grant (in August), for every $2 raised by DPS, the foundation would give $1. Werling said if DPS would receive the $400,000 Community Focus Fund grant, and would be accepted for the challenge grant, the $400,000 would automatically turn into $600,000. DPS’s other fundraising efforts could also be matched by the challenge grant.

Werling said if DPS misses out on the CFF grant this year, it would try again next year because the potential challenge grant will be good for three years.

Werling said if these two grant opportunities come together, along with other funding, the re-opening of the Delphi Opera House could come as early as 2014, which would be up to two years ahead of schedule.

“This is really going to be exciting as all this unfolds,” Werling said.

“Studies show that restored opera houses are engines for downtown revitalization,” she stated. “When a restored theater hosts arts and entertainment, a struggling town becomes a ‘destination town.’ Soon to follow are shops and boutiques, restaurants and cafes, B&Bs, residential development, and even a quality hotel. This pattern of revitalization has repeated itself in many small towns across America.”