The city’s approach involves bundling complex tax incentives to make historic rehabilitation financially viable. Abandoned buildings pose particular challenges. “We have a few abandoned buildings downtown, buildings that have lost their roofs and are basically shells. Most of those are historic buildings,” Taylor explains.The solution lies in creating what he calls a synthetic TIF district, combining new market tax credits, historic building credits, and abandoned building incentives.“If we can bundle all those and make it very easy for somebody who’s investing in these properties to access those, that would be a way paradox. Historic buildings stand empty while franchise restaurants multiply along the bypass. Several anchor restaurants have recently closed, leaving gaps in the Victorian streetscape. Taylor acknowledges the challenge directly. “We lost a number of our kind of anchor restaurants. Just the nature of business, people age out and some of those restaurants have closed,” he says. “We are looking now to try to work with some of the property owners to get those buildings again filled to their highest and best use.” Photo Credit: Oswaldo Tapia 4 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
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