Historic Preservation Credits

This could put another large kink in the downtown plans !!

From DDN:
Ohio Senate budget proposal would end historic preservation credits

By Lynn Hulsey - Staff Writer
An Ohio Senate Republican proposal to place a moratorium on the state’s Ohio Historic Tax Credit program starting July 1 is being criticized f0r putting at risk development projects across the state.


“This is a huge issue. There has been a tremendous amount of pushback from the historic preservation community,” said Aaron Sorrell, director of planning and community development for Dayton. “This does, as it is written, throw a lot of projects into turmoil.”

The state Development Services Agency annually awards $60 million in one-time tax credits for residential or commercial projects that rehabilitate historically significant buildings.

“It converts a white elephant back into a contributing resource on the tax rolls,” said Frank Quinn, director of preservation for Heritage Ohio, a statewide nonprofit advocacy group that has organized a campaign against the Senate proposal.

The wording of language in the Senate’s budget proposal has development officials worried that projects that were awarded credits but are not complete will lose the credits as of July 1. There is also concern the plan for a moratorium comes without any discussion with the development community and inserts uncertainty into development efforts that could keep projects from getting funded, said commercial real estate broker Mike Robinette, owner of GeoCre LLC in Hamilton.

“You have to go about it in a way that involves people who have invested money, taken a financial risk,” said Robinette. “You’ve got to do it in a way that doesn’t pull the rug out from under people.”

He sees no reason to place a moratorium on what he said is a successful program, and said that while any program can be made more efficient, it makes more sense to do the study while the program operates.

John Fortney, spokesman for the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus, said “existing projects already approved won’t lose their funding” and that the budget language is still being discussed.

Fortney said the program would continue after the moratorium but he said “we believe it will be much more efficient as a grant program” and that grants would direct more money to the historic buildings than tax credits.

“We believe the tax credit program needs to be more efficient, and it needs to be reviewed,” Fortney said. “That’s our goal but we haven’t decided yet on how to proceed.”

He did not respond when asked if the state’s other tax credit economic development programs were also inefficient and should be replaced with grants.

Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, has submitted an amendment to the budget that would leave the tax credit program as is, saying developers from across the state have expressed concern about the Republican plan.

There are 238 active projects across Ohio that have received $482.3 million in tax credits, said Todd Walker, spokesman for the Ohio Development Services Agency, which oversees the tax credit program. He said 101 projects have been completed using nearly $219 million in tax credits since the program began in 2007.

Across the nine-county Dayton region, 16 projects have been awarded credits worth nearly $23 million, although two were canceled before completion. One of the most prominent historic tax credit project is the now-completed Fort Piqua Hotel renovation, which like many of these projects would not have been affordable without the credits, Quinn said.

The most recent tax credit awards in the region went to the Weustoff and Getz Building rehab project in Dayton’s Oregon District and the Middletown Building and Deposit Association building in Middletown — both awarded in December.

Other rehab projects completed using the tax credit program include the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Shawnee Hotel in Springfield, and the David-McCrory and Howell-Sohngen buildings in Hamilton.

“We try to preserve the most historic structures in our city and this is a good tool,” said Ed Leinasars, housing rehab administrator for the city of Springfield. “It would be a loss if something like that were not available to help preserve historic buildings.”

Walker said the agency supports Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal to continue the program as it is.

“It’s one of the (development) tools that the agency has and this one helps maintain the historic character of Ohio’s communities and their historic buildings,” Walker said.

Sorrell said the tax credits are less risky to the public because they are not awarded until the project is completed. And he said they are attractive lures to banks.

“Because the tax credits are bought by financial institutions you have a lot of eyes on a project to make sure it gets done correctly,” Sorrell said.

The Senate is expected to vote on its final budget proposal this week and then the House and Senate would need to reconcile their budgets for fiscal years 2016-17. The fiscal year ends June 30.

glad to see this thing tightened up and phased down
locally. any building in the holy zone that is in serious disrepair is immediately labeled "historic", so that it can survive,and be re-done by taxpayers(though privately owned) at the leisure of the property owners. Little scrutiny in how the $$ is spent, who ends up with it and timely work performed.

imo public $$ has far more important uses than to facilitate re-building ?able structures for new private owners.

Anyone ever figure out what was "historic" about the Rose building, Sonshine Building or Goetz/bank towers?

State Senate reverses plan to cut tax credit   

Credit helped fund historic renovations across the state.   

By Lynn Hulsey
Staff Writer       
   State Senate Republicans on Monday reversed themselves on a plan to place a moratorium on a state tax credit for historic renovations, responding to a statewide outcry that their plan would halt economic development projects across the state.
   Across the nine-county Dayton region, 16 projects were awarded credits worth nearly $23 million, although two were canceled before completion. Tax credits     helped fund the Fort Piqua Hotel renovation, the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Shawnee Hotel in Springfield, and the David-McCrory and Howell-Sohngen buildings in Hamilton.
   Critics said the senate plan for a moratorium would hit projects that had already begun, such as Cincinnati's Music Hall, those approved but not yet started, like Dayton's Weustoff & Getz building in the Oregon District, and future projects that are in the planning stages. They also     said it would scare off lenders who provide private sector funding to the projects.
   An amendment to the Republican budget discards the moratorium, which would have taken effect on July 1, but keeps a plan to study switching the tax credit program to a grant program, said John Fortney, press secretary for the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus. If the change survives the budget process, the state Development Services Agency (DSA) would recommend changes to the legislature     by the end of the year.
   “The caucus decided that based on the input from the people involved, and the fast approaching budget deadline, the right thing to do was to set up a study commission to thoroughly examine and make recommendations about changing it to a grant program from a tax credit program,” Fortney said.
   The Senate may vote on its 2016-2017 budget Wednesday and then it will need reconciled       with the House budget. The fiscal year ends June 30.
   Local officials could not be reached for comment but Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, said the Republican move is a step in the right direction. He said he will wait until he sees the actual language before he “does any celebrating” but said if it is as Fortney describes the people of Ohio are the ones to thank.
   “You've got to give credit to all the people across the state that voiced their concern, whether it was business owners, investors, architects,” Schiavoni said. “Everybody really came together to make the Senate Republicans understand that this was not only going to stop the efforts     to revitalize some of our aging cities, but also take away good jobs and affordable housing for our citizens.”
   He said Youngstown developers used the historic tax credits to bring apartments, a barbershop, a bakery and an art museum to the city.
   There are 238 active projects across Ohio that have received $482.3 million in tax credits, said Todd Walker, spokesman for the DSA, which oversees the tax credit program.