Preservationists and developers alike are praising the final version of a bill, hammered out in a conference committee on the final day of the legislative session, that extends the state’s historic building tax credit program through 2026.
More significantly, the final version of the legislation preserves the program at its current level, which enables developers of historic buildings to recoup 20% of their costs in returning a historic building to commerce.
“We are grateful for the work of our representatives and senators to preserve the tax credit and are hopeful for the governor’s support,” Preserve Louisiana Executive Director Fairleigh Jackson says. “This program will play an important role in the economic recovery of the state.”
The bill to extend the program, which was set to expire at the end of 2021, sailed through the House last month but was heavily amended in the Senate. The changes tacked on in the Senate included extending the program to just 2023, limiting the amount of the credit to 10% and capping the entire program at $75 million a year.
In conference committee, however, the Senate restrictions were loosened and the cap was increased to $125 million.
Developers like Dyke Nelson, who has taken advantage of the program to help finance such historic renovations as the Commerce Building, 440 on Third and Electric Depot, say the cap is high enough to give developers the certainty they need to plan.
From 2017 to 2019, credit usage averaged $93.6 million a year.
“This program has a tremendous impact,” he says. “It enables huge improvements to our infrastructure and our historic buildings and makes developers spend real dollars in the state.”
Nelson says without the program, which is typically used in conjunction with a 20% federal historic building tax credit, none of his historic restoration projects would have happened.
Downtown has been the biggest, though not the only, beneficiary of the program in Baton Rouge. Of the 110 projects that have been made possible by the state tax credits over the lifetime of the program, 87 are downtown. They include such signature projects as the Kress Building, Hotel Indigo, Hilton Capital Center, 440 on Third, the Commerce Building, b1BANK and The Watermark hotel.
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