This news release is cross-posted from nps.gov.

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Federal historic preservation tax incentives generated $7 billion in GDP and 122,000 jobs in 2020

Program has generated $195.2 billion in GDP since 1978

News Release Date: December 22, 2021
Contact: NewsMedia@nps.gov

WASHINGTON - According to the Rutgers University’s Center for Urban Policy Research, the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program contributed more than $13.8 billion in output in terms of goods and services to the U.S. economy, generated approximately 122,000 jobs, and added an overall $7 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year 2020. The program is administered by the National Park Service (NPS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in partnership with State Historic Preservation Offices. 

“Historic preservation efforts do more than maintain and showcase our nation’s history – they also support community revitalization, job creation, affordable housing, and small businesses, particularly in historically marginalized communities whose histories are integral to America’s story,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “I am proud of the Department’s efforts to preserve our special places and ensure that future generations can learn about the rich history of every community.”

"Investments in the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program have extensive benefits to the national economy, generating more than $195.2 billion in GDP since 1978. This incredible federal/state partnership has enabled more than 46,000 preservation and rehabilitation projects while revitalizing communities across the country,” said NPS Director Chuck Sams.

The Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program, commonly known as the Historic Tax Credit, provides a 20% federal tax credit to property owners who undertake a substantial rehabilitation of a historic building in a commercial or other income-producing use while maintaining its historic character.

The NPS certifies that a building is historic, and therefore eligible for the program, and that the rehabilitation preserves the building’s historic character. The IRS is responsible for administering the other aspects of the tax credit under the Internal Revenue Code. The tax incentives program has helped to revive abandoned or underutilized schools, warehouses, factories, churches, retail stores, apartments, hotels, houses, agricultural buildings, offices, and other buildings across the country, and, in turn, has helped support the redevelopment of entire downtowns and neighborhoods. Seventeen percent of the projects certified in Fiscal Year 2020 were located in communities of less than 25,000 people.

According to this year’s report, about half of the certified rehabilitation projects were located in low- and moderate-income areas and three-quarters of all projects were in economically distressed areas. Program-related investments created approximately 122,000 jobs, including 42,000 jobs in construction and 27,000 jobs in manufacturing, and generated $2.3 billion in construction and $2.0 billion in manufacturing respectively. As a result of both direct and multiplier effects, and due to the interconnectedness of the national economy, sectors not immediately associated with historic rehabilitation, such as agriculture, mining, transportation, and public utilities, benefited as well.

State Historic Preservation Offices are the first point of contact for information and guidance for property owners interested in the program, and the NPS works closely with them in the administration of the program. A breakdown by state of the economic impacts and other program information is included in the reports.

Fiscal Year 2020 Highlights and Reports

• Annual Report on the Economic Impact of the Federal Historic Tax Credit for Fiscal Year 2020

• Federal Tax Incentives for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2020

Rehabilitation in Action

Forty-Four & Sixty-Six Service Station, Boise, Idaho | Photo credit: Dan Everhart

Forty-Four & Sixty-Six Service Station (Boise, Idaho)
Instead of demolition and sale of the land to the highest bidder, owners of the Forty-Four & Sixty-Six Service Station decided to preserve and rehabilitate the unique mid-century building for a future tenant who would appreciate the historic character of the building and sensitively adapt it to a modern use. The rehabilitation cost approximately $166,364 and received the 2020 Orchid Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation from Preservation Idaho.

Fiscal Year 2020 Highlights

Rehabilitated Housing Units

• Rehabilitated new or existing housing units: 16,624

• Low- and moderate-income housing units: 5,889

Economic Benefit

• Total estimated rehabilitation investment (Qualified Rehabilitation Expenditures): $6.5 billion

• Historic rehabilitation projects certified: 989

• Estimated total jobs created: 122,000

• Output (Goods and Services): $13.8 billion

• Gross domestic product: $7 billion

• Income created: $5.2 billion

www.nps.gov

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 423 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

We ask our New York preservation allies to continue voicing your support of the federal historic tax credit program, which supports rehabilitation of historic buildings across the state.

The recent U.S. House infrastructure legislation included provisions to improve the federal historic tax credit — which would improve its functionality here in New York! Read more.

The best way you can help right now in NYS is to call Senator's Schumer's office at 202.224.3121.

• Introduce your self as a constituent.

• Explain the importance of the federal historic tax credit in historic preservation and that it has not been meaningfully improved since the 1980s.

• Ask for the Senator’s support in protecting the Historic Tax Credit provisions in the House Reconciliation Infrastructure Bill. The current draft would benefit all HTC-eligible projects from Main Street to large-scale rehabilitation efforts across the country.

Phone calls Senator's office is the most effective advocacy at this time when the Congress is in ongoing negotiations. However, please feel free to also follow-up with any personal contacts you have in his office or send an electronic message.

As you may have heard, the recent U.S. House infrastructure legislation included provisions to improve the federal historic tax credit - improving its functionality here in New York!

Congressional leaders are currently negotiating with the Biden Administration over a $3.5 trillion package, which includes a number of community development incentives, to include historic tax credit improvements. The result of these negotiations is likely a drastic reduction in these earmarked funds - which insiders predict could be as low at $1.5 trillion.

Preservation advocates from across New York State have joined together to pen this letter of support for the federal historic tax credit provisions to Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senator Gillibrand. However, there is still advocacy to be done.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TODAY TO STRESS THAT THESE PROVISIONS MUST REMAIN IN THE FINAL BILL

Specifically, here in New York - Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senator Gillibrand need to hear from you on why you support these provisions.

Contact Senator Schumer's office via email or call the DC office at 202.224.6542.
Contact Senator Gillibrand's office via email or call the DC office at 202.224.4451.

What do I say to the members of their staff?

• Introduce yourself and let them know you'd like to voice your support for historic tax credit provisions (they may direct you to a more appropriate staff member).

• Thank the Senators for their support of the federal historic tax credit program over the years.

• Express how the provisions in the letter benefit you/your business, your community, and the State of New York.

  • Do you have/know of a preservation project that these provisions will emphasize?

  • Are you concerned with historic sites disappearing from the New York landscape/lack of incentives to preserve them?

  • Do you live in an economically challenged and/or rural part of New York that could benefit from these provisions?

Ask your NY Representatives to sign the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) FY22 Dear Colleague Letter

Don’t let historic preservation get left behind in this year’s appropriations process to determine Fiscal Year 2022 funding levels! Please contact your New York Congressional Representatives today to request they sign-on to the FY22 HPF Dear Colleague Letter requesting $150 million in funding for the HPF.

Find your New York Representatives and contact them ASAP! The deadline for signatures is April 28.

Thank you to the NY Congressional Reps who have signed (as of 4/22), including Representatives: Thomas Suozzi, Kathleen Rice, Antonio Delgado, Brian Higgins, Joseph Morelle, Jerrold Nadler, Paul Tonko, Nydia Velázquez, Hakeem Jeffries, and Mondaire Jones!

This bi-partisan effort is led by the co-chairs of the Historic Preservation Caucus, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH). If your Representative is not a member of the Preservation Caucus, please also ask that they consider contacting Representative Turner or Blumenauer’s staff for more information and to join.

Preservation advocates nationwide made this a priority at the 2021 National Preservation Advocacy Week in DC and now its your turn to show your support! The request includes:

• $60 million for State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs)

• $24 million for Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs)

• $20 million for the Save America’s Treasures grant program

• $10 million for competitive grants for Historically Black Colleges and Universities

• $9 million for the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization grants

• $1 million for a competitive grant program to survey and document historic resources

• $19 million for African American Civil Rights Initiative Competitive Grants

• $7 million for the newly established competitive grants programs to preserve the sites and stories associated with securing civil rights for All Americans

• Support for funding the Semiquincentennial grant program to preserve historical sites commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the United States of America…a commemoration that we at the League are already looking forward to!

If you haven’t already done so, please ask your NY Representatives to sign on as a co-sponsor of the new version of the HTC-GO legislation (H.R. 2294).

Contact your Representatives today to let them know these are incentives that are important to you, your organization, business, or community. Learn more about this legislation and tips on crafting your ask.

A big thank you to our New York regional preservation colleague organizations for signing our support letter for H.R. 2294, and promoting historic preservation as part of the solution to aid in nationwide post-pandemic economic recovery!

Join us in reminding our New York Congressional Representatives that historic preservation can provide opportunities to aid in nationwide economic recovery as we look towards our post-COVID-19 future.

Urge your Representative to Cosponsor HTC-GO. Thank you to NY Representative Brian Higgins for leading the way on this important legislation!

What’s in the New Version of the HTC-GO Legislation?

Temporary Provisions

The HTC-GO legislation (H.R. 2294) temporarily increases the rehabilitation credit (IRC § 47) to address projects impacted by the pandemic.

• This provision increases the HTC percentage from 20% to 30% for 2020 through 2024.

• The credit percentage is phased down to 26% in 2025, 23% in 2026, and returns to 20% in 2027 and thereafter.

Justification: Developers and building owners are experiencing challenges in rehabbing historic buildings. The financial markets have slowed, making it difficult for projects to access capital and stalling complex historic real estate developments. The increased volatility in the market and project risk is forcing banking institutions to decrease their loan frequency and the overall amount while tightening underwriting requirements. Increases in material and construction costs and an uncertain tenant market have further impacted potential developments. As a result, many projects have stalled or are no longer feasible.

Permanent Provisions

• Increases the credit from 20% to 30% for projects with less than $2.5 million in qualified rehabilitation expenses, making it easier to complete small rehabilitation projects.

• Lowers the substantial rehabilitation threshold, making more buildings eligible to use the HTC.

• Eliminates the requirement that the value of the HTC must be deducted from a building’s basis (property’s value for tax purposes), increasing the value of the HTC and making it easier to pair with the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

• Makes the HTC easier to use by nonprofits for community health centers, local arts centers, affordable housing, homeless services, and others by eliminating IRS restrictions that make it challenging to partner with developers.

Justification: The above provisions would make important changes to the HTC to encourage more building reuse and redevelopment nationwide and would particularly benefit small, midsize, and rural communities. These provisions would not only make the credit easier to use and more historic properties eligible, but it would also enhance the value of the HTC and make the credit easier to use to create affordable housing.

Contact your reps today to let them know these are incentives that are important to you, your organization or business, and community. The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP), The National Trust Community Investment Corporation (NTCIC), and the Historic Tax Credit Coalition (HTCC) are pushing hard for these inclusions, with support from the Preservation League of NYS in New York, but your representatives need to hear from their constituents!

• Visit the websites of your NY House Representatives and Senators

  • Send a message to your Representative through their website and select “tax” or “taxation” as the issue area.

  • Or call (during office hours) the office of your House Member. Introduce yourself as a constituent and ask for the email address of tax staff.

• Draft your message using the following talking points:

  • Historic Tax Credit projects will help revitalize our communities and support our nation’s economic recovery. Many projects continue to experience profound challenges on-site and in the financing realm, due to the pandemic.

  • Now is the time to strengthen this proven incentive to address the slowdown in rehabilitation projects across the country, particularly smaller projects in our main street communities and downtowns.

  • Would the Representative please cosponsor the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act, sponsored by Rep. Blumenauer and Rep. LaHood?

  • These provisions were included and passed in the House Infrastructure bill (H.R. 2) in July 2020. Please look for opportunities to include these provisions in future infrastructure legislation.

  • Note any examples you may have that describe obstacles that local HTC projects have faced during the pandemic, such as delays, extra costs incurred onsite, and project financing difficulties and describe how projects would benefit from a temporary provision that increases the HTC from 20% to 30% (like leveraging more investor equity etc.) and explain how the permanent HTC provisions in the House-passed infrastructure bill would help projects and contribute to the economic recovery.

You may wish to share the HTC Fact Sheet and related legislation with Congressional Offices and review the project lists in your region.

For further assistance with your advocacy, contact: NTHP, NTCIC, HTCC, or PLNYS:

• Mike Phillips, mphillips@ntcic.com

• Shaw Sprague, ssprague@savingplaces.org

• Patrick Robertson, probertson@confluencegr.com

• Erin Tobin, etobin@preservenys.org

• Christina Hingle, chingle@preservenys.org

Looking for a recap on how we got here? Catch up with the recording of the January 26 New York federal advocacy webinar.

In case you missed it...Biden tosses former president Trump's classical architecture order. Read more.

The League joined with other preservation colleagues from around the state, including representatives from the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the New York State Historic Preservation Office for a week of virtual Congressional meetings to advocate for preservation to our NY Representatives.

Among the asks:

• $150 million appropriation towards HPF Funding for 2022;

• Urging to join the historic preservation caucus; and

• Improvements to the federal historic tax credit (HTC) program with the goals of bringing more value to HTC transactions and encouraging redevelopment of smaller, income-producing properties and increasing the credit from 20-30%.

Nationwide, 200 meetings were attended over the course of the week and advocates from 42 states were represented. A great showing of advocacy for historic preservation!

On February 26, the House of Representatives passed the National Heritage Areas Act (H.R. 1316) led by Paul D. Tonko (D-NY) and David McKinley (R-WV), as part of the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act. This important act also reauthorized the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, an important partner in preserving and celebrating our National Historic Landmark canal system.

• Click here to read the press release from Representative Tonko.

• Click here to view his “Protecting America’s Heritage Areas” fact sheet.

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Good news: The federal government will not implement federal rule changes proposed by the prior administration that were hostile to the National Register designation process. In April 2019, the Preservation League submitted a letter, along with countless other preservation organizations, in opposition to these National Register changes and are thrilled they are now off the table.

These changes would have:

• Created multiple burdens and roadblocks to designation of culturally and historically significant public land.

• Had a significant negative impact on how federal properties were nominated to the National Register and determined eligible.

• Allowed National Register objections to be weighted based on property size, as compared to the current system of one owner equals one vote.

• Affected communities across the country and had a devastating impact on the Historic Tax Credit program.

Thank you to all the preservation advocates who stood up for preservation and opposed the implementation of these rule changes!

Earlier this month, the much anticipated FY19 economic impact report of the federal historic tax credit was published. This report highlights the success of the federal historic tax credit program nationwide specifically, that it generated $6.2 Billion in GDP and created 109,000 Jobs in 2019. Meaningful impacts of the program can also be seen here in New York, with $550 million in GDP, and 9,561 jobs created. Further evidence that the historic tax credit program has an incredibly important role as the nation looks toward a post-pandemic economic recovery.

"For more than 42 years, the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program has enabled the preservation and rehabilitation of more than 45,000 historic properties, while generating more than $188.2 billion in GDP nationally,” said Margaret Everson, Counselor to the Secretary, exercising the delegated authority of the National Park Service Director. “This is an incredible example of a federal/state partnership that continues to drive investments in historic preservation and revitalize communities across the country."

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Earlier this month, the much anticipated Annual Report on the Economic Impact of the Federal Historic Tax Credit for Fiscal Year 2019 was published. This report highlights the success of the Federal Historic Tax Credit program nationwide, specifically that it generated $6.2 Billion in GDP and created 109,000 jobs in 2019. Meaningful impacts of the program can also be seen here in New York, with $550 million in GDP and 9,561 jobs created. This report provides further evidence that the historic tax credit program has an incredibly important role as the nation looks toward a post-pandemic economic recovery.

"For more than 42 years, the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program has enabled the preservation and rehabilitation of more than 45,000 historic properties, while generating more than $188.2 billion in GDP nationally,” said Margaret Everson, Counselor to the Secretary, exercising the delegated authority of the National Park Service Director. “This is an incredible example of a federal/state partnership that continues to drive investments in historic preservation and revitalize communities across the country."