The next challenge is already waiting.

A rousing grand opening of the $145 million renovation of downtown Hartford’s PeoplesBank Arena was crowned by the simultaneous popping of a half-dozen champagne bottle corks, but outside the front entrance on Trumbull Street : empty storefronts.

A $2 million matching grant program could inject life into those spaces and build on the momentum of the long-debated arena renovation, officials say.

The grants of $250,000 or potentially more would encourage minimum 5-year leases in long-vacant storefronts along Trumbull and Asylum streets in the privately-owned Hartford 21 complex that surrounds the arena.

The exact boundaries have yet to be determined, but it is likely that they also could also encompass a corridor that extends up Pratt Street to

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