Opportunity Overview
The Kansas Department of Commerce Historic Economic Asset Lifeline (HEAL) 7.0 program provides matching grants to rehabilitate underutilized, vacant, or deteriorated downtown buildings and return them to productive use. Eligible end uses include new or expanding businesses, housing, arts and culture, civic engagement, childcare, and entrepreneurship.
Funding and Match
Kansas Commerce announced $1.5 million in total HEAL 7.0 funding. The current program materials state that funding is intended to be split 50/50 between rural and urban projects unless applications do not meet the program’s threshold for that split. The maximum building grant is $100,000, and the maximum façade grant is $40,000. Applicants must provide at least a 1:1 match and document the building owner’s matching funds. Other state or federal funds may be used as match when the other funding source permits HEAL funds to be combined without duplication of benefit.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants include designated Kansas Main Street programs, economic development corporations, cities, counties, 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) organizations, local community foundations, Tribal Nations or organizations, and businesses that have an eligible fiscal agent. Projects must be located in a downtown business district or connecting corridor and generally in a city with fewer than 50,000 residents; HEAL 7.0 also extends eligibility to qualifying distressed urban areas under the program’s published criteria.
The property must have architectural significance to the district, demonstrate viable reuse as an economic driver, and meet the program’s construction, design, code, and occupancy requirements. No more than one HEAL grant may be awarded to a city in the round.
Eligible and Ineligible Costs
Eligible building costs include physical construction items such as masonry, insulation, foundations, roofs, windows, doors, walls, ceilings, floors, stairs, elevators, lighting and fixtures, electrical wiring, data and communications wiring excluding equipment, HVAC, plumbing, fire suppression, and ADA accessibility improvements. Up to 5% of an award may be retained for administration.
Professional architectural and engineering fees, acquisition costs, and leasing contracts are not eligible building-grant expenses. Façade funding is similarly restricted to qualifying physical improvements. The program is not an equipment-purchase grant.
Required Application Materials
Applications require preliminary architectural drawings, including plans and elevations; color renderings when street-facing façades are involved; actual bids from licensed contractors; a simple business plan for the intended post-construction use; proof of the 1:1 match; and a letter signed by the applicant organization and building owner confirming commitment to the project.
Deadline and Timeline
The HEAL 7.0 application period opened September 21, 2026 and closes November 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM. The current Kansas Commerce program page does not state a time zone, so Atlas does not infer one. Construction must begin by July 1, 2027, reach full completion by July 1, 2029, and have a tenant in place by December 31, 2029.
Atlas Analysis
Atlas Opportunity Score: 58/100. N9+ Direct Vendor Fit: 0/100. QC Healthcare Fit: 10/100, highly conditional. A qualifying healthcare or wellness business could occupy a rehabilitated building, but HEAL funds physical construction and expressly excludes equipment from the data/communications category. Atlas should not position N9+ as a grant-funded purchase under the current rules. Direct Dr. Miltie vendor fit is not established.
Next Steps
Before applicant-specific action, verify the exact property location and distressed-area or population eligibility, downtown/corridor status, building significance, intended tenant or business use, 1:1 match, contractor bids, fiscal-agent structure when applicable, and all required supporting documents. Because the published 5:00 PM closing time has no stated time zone, automated original outreach should fail closed unless the controlling deadline time zone is authoritatively established.
Controlling source: Kansas Department of Commerce HEAL program page.