Johnson-Schmidt & Associates, Architects is pleased to announce that Corning Free Academy, now called Academy Place, is featured on the newly published cover and back page of the National Park Service’s Annual Report on Federal Tax Incentives for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings. The publication was released in March by the National Park Service and is already in its second printing.
According to the report, “the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program, administered by the National Park Service in partnership with the State Historic Preservation Offices, is the nation’s most effective program to promote historic preservation and community revitalization through historic rehabilitation. With over 42,000 completed projects since its inception in 1976, the program has generated over $84 billion in the rehabilitation of income-producing historic properties. The largest Federal program specifically supporting historic preservation, the historic tax credit also generates much needed jobs, enhances property values in older communities, creates affordable housing, and augments revenue for Federal, state and local governments. The widely-recognized program has been instrumental in preserving historic places that give our cities, towns, and communities their special character.”
Corning Free Academy, now Academy Place, was rehabilitated as 58 market rate apartments by Purcell Construction of Watertown, NY, and was designed by Johnson-Schmidt & Associates, who also provided the historic preservation consulting services to undertake the project as an Historic Tax Credit Project. To receive the tax credits, a project must meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, which preserves the historic integrity of a building’s exterior and numerous aspects of the building’s interior. At Academy Place, the original corridors were retained; lockers were replaced with panels that recall the original wooden lockers that lined the hallways; the original auditorium was retained; ceiling heights of the original building were reestablished in the apartments; original millwork and window frames were restored; skylights were uncovered and restored; a major portion of the original gym was reused for an athletic center; original windows that had been in-filled with masonry were reopened, including numerous large arched windows in the back; wood floors were restored where they existed; and numerous improvements were made to the building to create high end apartments with granite countertops and beautiful kitchen cabinetry, bathrooms and lighting.
Johnson-Schmidt & Associates (www.PreservationArchitects.com) is an architectural practice which specializes in designing the revitalization of historic buildings, and provides assistance to project owners seeking historic preservation tax credits. Coupled with a 20% NY State Tax Credit in qualifying census tracts, the Federal Tax Credit of 20% enables projects to be undertaken that would not otherwise be possible, due to project costs exceeding income opportunity for potential developers. Utilization of these tax credits has enabled downtown revitalization to occur in communities across the country (many states also have an historic preservation tax credit to piggyback with the federal credits), however, New York has generated more private investment in historic preservation rehabilitation projects than any other state in America over the past three and one-half years ($3 Billion), and has enabled downtown revitalization to thrive across New York State (mostly outside of NYC) despite economic downturns. Downtown revitalization has been shown to be the largest sector of economic development investment and returns internationally.
With proposed changes to the tax code looming, the historic preservation tax credit is in jeopardy, despite the fact that (according to the Study by Rutgers https://www.nps.gov/tps/tax-incentives/taxdocs/economic-impact-2015.pdf ) for every dollar that is awarded in historic preservation tax credits, $1.20 is generated to our Federal Government, NOT including the benefits of jobs, purchase of materials, new residents/tenants in otherwise vacant buildings, and vitality created by these projects.
Feel free to contact your Congressman to express your support for this important program!
The 4-page publication may be viewed by going to
https://www.nps.gov/tps/tax-incentives/taxdocs/tax-incentives-2016annual.pdf
For more information on the Academy Place project, contact Elise Johnson-Schmidt (607) 937-1946 or elise@preservationarchitects.com.
