>I have heard once before that there is a grant avialabe to a
>business that can bring economic growth and development to a
>small town. My idea is to build a bowling alley. The clostest
>bowling alley to me is about 25 miles away and is like that if
>not more for a lot of people living around me.

The thing that concerns me about your idea is how far in the planning stage have you gone? With an idea such as yours there is going to be a lot of expenses in the name of overhead - most notably the building! Are you talking about building a bowling alley from scratch or using an existing building and making it a bowling alley? What are the costs going to be whichever of the above you choose? How much experience do you have at running a business or more specifically a bowling alley?

As unbelievable as it may seem ideas have been brought before community boards before and they have been accepted simply because the presentation of the idea proved to be a valuable community assest - benefitting the community.

Have you thought of including some type of "educational" aspect to your bowling alley such as providing a community "hangout" for the youth in the area. What about providing the same thing for seniors? How many jobs will the bowling alley provide the community with? Did you know that communities are given free property from the government and those communities in turn rent or sell the properties at a lower than market value rate? Could one of these properties be used for a bowling alley?

Another very popular trend that is happening is that non-profits are adding for-profits as part of their business - so could your bowling alley be a combination of both?

Also your post says that you have the idea and you list the reasons that you feel that your idea is viable but have you presented it to your community yet?

Also you should know that there are grant programs out there besides the "community economic" ones. A lot of states have grant programs specifically for those that want to start their own business - as well as the same kind of grant programs that are on a more national level.

So don't just limit yourself to one source for grants.