As the CBD slowly has more businesses reopening their doors after the floods, there is a state and federal government funding element that is holding back the progress.

The current list of grants for business owners includes $10,000, $50,000 and the upcoming $200,000 for medium-sized businesses with 21 plus employees.

However, as I write, there is no grant available for landlords.

In many cases, business owners have been waiting on the owner of the building to begin the cleanup work so they can reopen their store and trade. Some, have been exceptional (think back to the Lismore App's Fashion Profile story) in doing whatever is needed to get their tenant open.

For others, that may have invested in their own building to secure their future or those that may own multiple properties, cashflow is once again a big problem.

(Looking down a quiet Magellan Street toward Molesworth Street)

Depending on the amount of damage done to the building from the monster February 28 flood there may be structural damage and at worst roofing, walls and electrical damage that require large amounts of cash to be outlayed to begin the rebuild process. When you are talking $100,000 or $200,000 as a minimum you can understand that some owners can only wait and hope a grant announcement for landlords is imminent and soon. We cannot assume every landlord has millions of dollars sitting in their bank account.

Rod Latimer is a fourth generation local business owner with his parents once owning the sports store in Magellan Street, Latimer's Laundry and a tyre store. Rod owns little polli & the blackbird on Magellan Street, next door to Music Bizarre and purchased the building to "secure his families future" just 20 days before February 28. Rod calls the event "the tsunami" because of the wave of water that rolled through the CBD.

The damage bill was estimated at $200,000 with $50,000 worth of glass and $25,000 electrical and wiring part of that damage bill.

Rod is of the understanding that there is an announcement coming for landlords but it is yet to be approved.

There has been talk of what that help may look like, such as an interest free loan for landlords. This may sound positive to most but as Rod said, "If I get a loan for $130,000 at today's interest rates it might save me seven grand. Then they want me to pay that back and who says I am going to have $130,000 to pay it back in the next two years."

Other suggested options are a 50/50 mix of owners money matched by the government or grants based on the square metrage of each building so the larger buildings receive more money than the smaller buildings.

This is an example of the size and scale of the devastation caused by the February 28 flood. It sets new precedents from a government perspective as they work through different financial support scenarios and the terms of reference that sit along side them.

However, this does little to quell the frustration felt by landlords, business owners and the people of Lismore and surrounds.