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Round 4 Awards: The Last Hurrah?

Tomorrow in Cleveland, Governor Strickland will announce the winning submissions from Round 4 of the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program. With 50 applications coming in from 14 cities, the program remains immensely popular. Unfortunately, as it stands now, this could be the last round of state tax credits awarded.

The tax credit that has been touted variously as a smart growth initiative, a job growth stimulus, and a downtown revitalization tool (not to mention a great way to preserve one-of-a-kind historic structures in danger of demolition) faces an uncertain future because no one has been able to answer the “How are we going to pay for the credits?” question. As a late add-on to Strickland’s Job Stimulus Plan, $120 million was set aside a couple years ago to reimburse eligible rehabilitation expenses on construction projects. With tomorrow’s Round 4 announcement, the remaining $24.4 million will be gobbled up quickly by the more than $80 million in credits requested from the applicants. Once that money is spoken for, the program has effectively ended. And it’s a program that, even in a short time, has established an impressive track record. Consider this:

• In Round 3 every dollar of state tax credits has leveraged an additional $7.10 in project investment
• ODOD estimates that $250 million invested by the state in these projects will create 27,775 jobs, costing the state $9,000 per job created (by contrast, the state’s popular Third Frontier program costs the state $20,000 per job created)
• The program continues to expand its geographic scope, positively impacting communities both large and small

Fixing the Credits

Without a ready funding solution like bond funding, used by the Third Frontier program, or amending existing legislation, the tax credit program’s future looks dim. This is unfortunate, considering how ODOD’s report touts the program’s benefit as a revitalization catalyst. Perhaps now the best action any Ohioan can take is to read a copy of the program’s 2009 Annual Report (check it out here) and then contact your state representative & senator and ask them to find a solution to sustain a program with significant benefits on so many levels.

Coming tomorrow: the announcement from Governor Strickland and ODOD on Round 4 project awards.

About the images: state tax credits catalyzed efforts to rejuvenate the Fort Piqua Plaza and Capitol Theatre, both long-shuttered eyesores with uncertain futures. The tax credits helped return these community landmarks to productive use.

Tax Credit Workshop – July 23, 2010

10am – 3pm at Ryan’s Tavern, 241 High Street, Hamilton Ohio

Everything you need to know to use
Tax Credits on your historic building rehabilitation!

• Learn about federal & state historic tax credits
• Understand the submission, review & approval process
• Explore finance options
• Panel presenters discuss architectural, legal & accounting considerations
• Take advantage of one-on-one consultations to get expert advice for your project
• The workshop ends with a tour of the Mercantile Block led by Steve Coon

Featured Speakers include:
Steve Coon                      Coon Restoration & Sealants
Duane Van Dyke           Van Dyke Architects
Mark Lundine                Ohio Department of Development
Judy Kitchen                 Ohio Historic Preservation Office
Jonathan Sandvick      Sandvick Architects
Don Longwell                 Longwell Legal
and more!

Click Here to Register!

Top Opportunity Nominations are due by May 21, 2010.

Havana vs. Sawgrass Mills Mall

• The preservation and continued use of more historic schools in the state
• With 20% tax credit eligibility, school rehabilitation projects would be put on a more competitive footing with new construction projects, demonstrating a much better economic value for the taxpayers in the school district
• School rehabilitation (as opposed to new construction) is a more labor intensive practice, and $1 million spent to rehabilitate schools creates more jobs than $1 million spent to construct new schools
• School rehabilitation demonstrates a school district’s conviction to invest in and maintain its most valuable assets, as opposed to wasting its existing assets by demolishing them
• School rehabilitation shows a school district’s savvy in understanding & teaching its students that green practices extend far beyond placing recycling bins in the school cafeteria (indeed, preserving historic schools demonstrates perhaps the ultimate level of environmental responsibility)  

Accountants Novogradac & Company LLP maintain a web site you can access to keep up-to-date on the latest legislation involving a host of different tax credit incentives that affect historic buildings. You can access their tax credit information here.

A brief fact sheet outlining the need and reasoning behind amending current tax legislation is included here.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on the status of this legislation as we learn more.

Having seen the exterior of the Sorg Mansion, I couldn’t wait to get inside to see whether it had been a lucky survivor as much as the outside. I’m happy to report that I was not disappointed.

While the inside had been long ago broken up into multiple rental units, the building somehow had managed to maintain nearly all of its interior ornament. I spent the next hour engaged in double-takes, multiple “now how the hell…?” mutters, jaw drops, and eye pops in continued wonder at just how this building’s decorative interior had survived so marvelously intact.

As with yesterday’s post, I’ve included some images from that day, interior highlights this time, so you can get a sense of this home’s wonderful ornament.

Sorg Mansion - carved mantel

By the 1880s there were many decorative details that could be mass produced on a lathe or molding planer (or just using simple sawblade trickery) that people would think was hand-carved. Not the case with the mantel surround pictured above. Every detail in this image was painstakingly hand-carved, the work of a master artisan. I really like the whimsical touch the carved face gives the piece. What a wonderful piece of artwork!

Sorg Mansion - decorative plaster

The first floor spaces show off  an impressive array of decorative plaster, from ceiling medallions commanding attention in the center of the room, to ornate cornices bridging the walls and ceilings, to applied patterns softening the sharp corners. The image above shows the corner of one large room. The object in the upper right of this image is a three-bulb light fixture, retrofitted into the design sometime after the house was constructed. It’s a reminder that the building, while visibly capturing the 1880s in its appearance, has actually been constantly changing since the day it was constructed. Sometimes these changes complement the appearance of a structure, and sometimes these changes do great damage to a structure.

Sorg Mansion - decorative tilework

According to the owner, the tile shown above (from the most elaborate of the home’s bathrooms, and perhaps accurately considered the master bathroom) is a European import. The irridescent glaze and molded shell & ribbon design provide visual and textual interest. Everything about the house – the rough texture of the stonework, the creak of the wood floors, the faint smell of smoke still evident in the now-unused fireplaces, the stunning patterns of sunlight showing through the stained glass – engaged my senses, providing a richness of experience that is all too rare with many historic buildings. I’m not sure how to adequately describe it except to say that this home had (and has) a magnetic personality. I was continually reminded of that with each new room we walked into and investigated.

Sorg Mansion - stained glass

Having done a little stained glass work, I know that just cutting and leading the border in the piece above would have kept me busy for hours!

In so many homes, the stained glass becomes an easy target for vandals, either to break, or to steal and sell to architectural salvage businesses. Thankfully, the Sorg Mansion has avoided the same fate of the loss of its character-defining ornament.

Sorg Mansion - recessed fireplace with paneled surround

Here’s another of the first floor fireplaces/mantels with marble firebox surround, and paneled/molded recessed mantel. A variety of wood species including walnut, cherry, oak, and maple were used in the rooms to give each one its own unique decorative identity. Note another retrofit: the electrical outlet installed in the base molding adjacent to the tile hearth.

I hope you enjoyed this “tour” of what is, without a doubt, Middletown’s grandest residence, the Sorg Mansion. If you ever get the chance to view this historic treasure, don’t pass it up…you won’t be disappointed!

As part of its Top Opportunities program, Heritage Ohio has submitted a brief report outlining recommendations to facilitate the continued preservation and use of this building. As we learn of updates, we will keep you informed. And, if you know of important Ohio buildings worthy of preservation as potential “Top Opportunities” let us know. We’ll announce the next class of Top Opportunities at our conference in Athens next year.

Heritage Ohio created the Top Opportunities program in 2007 to raise awareness about historically significant properties for interested investors, developers, and funders. It is Heritage Ohio’s aim to demonstrate the economic benefits of historic preservation through the restoration and reuse of these sites.

I was not prepared for what I was about to see as Fritz and I walked up that gravel drive. Stunned might be a good word to describe how I looked with those first feelings of awe and excitement.

As I continued gawking (staring? drooling?) what really struck me was the visual richness of the exterior. Every square inch of this building, literally, was a feast for the eyes, whether it was the patterns and colors in the sandstone, the colorful reflective quality of the stained glass, the subdued shine of the black slates, or the varied pieces of ornament attached to the exterior. It was an amazing sight to behold, and now we had the privilege of looking this building up and down, end to end, taking as much time as we could to enjoy and savor this unique structure.

Since words can’t do it justice, I’ve included some images from that day, so you can see for yourself the beauty of the Sorg Mansion.

Sorg Mansion - turret

The house features a variety of turrets at its corners. One turret led to a conservatory, and it appears from the first floor plan that the turret and conservatory were mainly glassed-in. Unfortunately, the conservatory had been removed at some point in the past; however, that was the only significant piece of the building’s footprint that was missing.

Sorg Mansion - arches

The massive romanesque arches sheltering the front entryway recall Richardsonian stylings that were popular for the era.

Sorg Mansion - carved stone

The quality (and sheer amount) of the quality stone carving was unlike anything I had ever seen on a private residence. To put the amount of ornament into perspective, consider this: the house cost a million dollars (in 1880s dollars) to construct, and it’s for sale today for almost half that amount. But to construct this same house today, replicating the materials and finishes, would easy cost tens of millions of dollars. What does that say about how we celebrate, and how we value, our historic resources?

Sorg Mansion - exterior elevation

In many places the stone appears to be almost black; however, the exterior’s original color was more of a pink (and peachy, with some swirls of light beach sand) color. Years of air pollution have considerably darkened the stones. Thankfully the microscopic particles adhering to the stone have not caused serious damage or deterioration to the surface. Whether to remove the pollutants and restore the stone to its original color is a restoration decision for the owner to consider.

Sorg Mansion - carved gargoyle

Having seen the exterior, I couldn’t wait to get inside to see whether it had been a lucky survivor as much as the outside. I was not disappointed…

Heritage Ohio created the Top Opportunities program in 2007 to raise awareness about historically significant properties for interested investors, developers, and funders. It is Heritage Ohio’s aim to demonstrate the economic benefits of historic preservation through the restoration and reuse of these sites.

Earlier this year we had the chance to visit Middletown to do a site visit at the Sorg Mansion, one of our 2009 Top Opportunities. The Sorg’s nomination came courtesy of Adriane Scherrer, a downtown stakeholder active in small business incubation through the We-Can Business Incubator.

The Sorg was certainly an intriguing property, judging by the application. An 1880s residence with over 13,000 square feet, I tried to imagine what the home may have looked like the day the first owners moved in and took up residence. Plans outlining alterations & additions dating from 1900, included in the Top Opps application, added an additional tantalizing layer of intrigue. The building showed exterior hints of romanesque and chateauesque style. The interior plans marked the location of multiple bathrooms (I counted 5 1/2 bathrooms on the plans at a time when indoor plumbing was still a relatively new concept for many Ohioans). What appeared like the grandest, most modern, most ornate of European residences had been dropped on the edge of a southwest Ohio steel town.

Of course, with the amazement of how buildings were built back in the day,  came the inevitable realization of how these buildings age, usually not for the better (especially the grand mansions that get chopped up into rental units). Where there was ornate plaster work - medallions, flourishes and curlicues - now there would be only stained and dingy drywall. Where there was an intricately carved wooden mantel surrounding a massive firebox, now there would be only ghosting to mark the location of a fireplace ornament, long ago stripped from its rightful home, to be displayed as an ancient curiosity in a different place.

However, if you look carefully, you can still find remnants of a building’s past glory, even if that building has been treated to a rough existence; a fragment of ornate wallpaper, forgotten in a back closet, a scrap of unmarred oak flooring, a colorful attic window… So, holding out a bit of hope, but coming in with eyes open, I was accompanied by board member, Fritz Harding, to check out the house (all 13,000 square feet of it), the carriage house (not too paltry itself, at 5,000 square feet) and a nearly 4,000 square foot duplex house on the property. We would discuss the owner’s plans for the house, and generally figure out how Heritage Ohio could be of help to insure the property’s continued use and preservation.

I was not prepared for what I was about to see as Fritz and I walked up that gravel drive…

Heritage Ohio created the Top Opportunities program in 2007 to raise awareness about historically significant properties for interested investors, developers, and funders. It is Heritage Ohio’s aim to demonstrate the economic benefits of historic preservation through the restoration and reuse of these sites.

Time:               9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Location:         Stuart’s Opera House, 46 Public Square, Nelsonville, Ohio 45764

Contact:          ACEnet at 740-592-3854 (phone), 740-593-5451 (fax), or angiec@acenetworks.org (email)

Register:          http://www.acenetworks.org/training/seminar/

Cost:                $30 if registered and paying in advance

$35 if registering at the door the morning of the event

Registration (if not done online) and fees should be mailed to:         ACEnet, 94 Columbus Road, Athens OH 45701

ACEnet, Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease LLP, and the Ohio Department of Development have teamed up to present a seminar to assist Ohio’s small communities in these tough economic times.  Hosted with the help of Nelsonville Main Street and the Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau, this seminar brings the expertise of Scott Ziance of the law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease LLP to the region.

Following Mr. Ziance’s presentation, the Ohio Department of Development staff will discuss state programs and resources for business development.  ACEnet and Heritage Ohio’s Main Street staff will discuss other economic development strategies for small communities.

Topics for the day will include:

I. The Well-Stocked Economic Development Toolbox

A.                Downtown Redevelopment

B.                 Infrastructure Developmenta

C.                 Brownfields

D.                Small Business Assistance

E.                 Business Attraction/Retention

F.                  Public Financing

G.                Advanced & Miscellaneous Tools

II. Using the Tools

A.                Identify a specific objective or objectives

B.                 Spend time choosing the most effective tools to achieve the objective

C.                 Secure help from experts if the benefits outweigh the costs and risks

D.                Assemble multi-dimensional team

E.                 Gain control over communications

F.                  Collaborate with key stakeholders

III. Case Studies

A.                Tax increment financing and CRA exemptions for downtown redevelopment

B.                 Development of industrial park in an unincorporated area

C.                 Sample TIF calculation for community with initial increase in value of $1,000,000 and school district compensation agreement

IV. State Programs

V. Business Incubation In Rural Communities

VI. The Main Street National Model

Please contact us with any questions regarding this great opportunity.  We look forward to seeing you all there!