Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS) celebrated its 44th year at their annual Community Luncheon along with hundreds of historic preservation and community development supporters. As a part of the celebration, NTCIC’s President Merrill Hoopengardner provided luncheon remarks highlighting another reason to celebrate. She acknowledged the significant impact of Ohio’s advocates who worked tirelessly over the last year to preserve the historic tax credit (HTC).
Merrill identified that Ohio legislators, both from the House and Senate, played critical roles in raising the importance of the HTC which was strongly correlated to an impressive range of state statistics. Ohio led the nation in approved Part 3s last year and ranks 3rd in the number of total projects rehabilitated since the HTC program’s inception. From 2002 through 2017, there have been 1,086 HTC projects reported totaling over $2.9 billion in qualified rehabilitation expenses (QREs). Specifically in Cleveland, from 2002 through 2017, there have been 187 HTC projects reported totaling $1.5 billion in QREs.
Merrill was followed by keynote Executive Director Kathy Kottaridis of Historic Boston Inc. (HBI) an organization that invests in redevelopment and re-use of endangered historic building projects.
Merrill also led a post-lunch forum as an exclusive opportunity to discuss how the preservation and development community collaborated to ensure the retention of the federal HTC, how changes to the credit are affecting the market, and how HTC advocates can help ongoing efforts to improve it in Congress.
Learn more about Cleveland Restoration Society at http://www.clevelandrestoration.org/