The City of Tonawanda just got a sizable amount of money from the state to improve its downtown business district.  

"The downtown area is  up and coming. There are nice businesses moving in here. We're trying to beautify the downtown area," said Shannon Barlow, the owner of Twisted Tiki Tattoo Studio.

Barlow says business is good, but it's not where it can be.

"This downtown area, I think that there can be a lot more businesses that could have people want to come here, to get out of their car and walk around. I think that being on the water is important for the city to survive, as far as what they're going to offer people, because people will come down here and they will basically want to just go through the city because there's not a lot of reasons to get out of their car," said Barlow

Now, thanks to New York State Sen. Chris Jacobs (R-60), that's about to change.

"I was able to secure in the state budget this year $450,000 in capital money to go towards work here on Young Street," said Jacobs.

The money will go toward transforming the Young and Main Street corridor to make it more pedestrian friendly.

"We're going to run some curbing along here and take out some of the black top at both ends of Young Street, and then in this area here we're going to have a pavilion that’s going to be more like what Larkinville is in the city of Buffalo, with some improvements with cobblestone, with planters that people can sit at," said Tonawanda Mayor Rick Davis (D).

The project also calls for solar charging stations, new signage, crosswalks, sidewalk improvements and ADA compliant ramps. Barlow says he's excited about the plan.

"I'm looking forward to what the mayor is going to do with the city and try to get it to where people going to come here as a destination," Barlow said.

The total cost of the project is expected to be about $1 million. Work is scheduled to begin sometime next year and should be completed in 2020.