Historic Rehab Tax Credits - State Historic Preservation Office

Once Again, We're Number One!

Horton House (1859) in the historic Museum Hill District of St. Joseph... before

Looking for the impact of historic rehab tax credits on Missouri's neighborhoods?
Try standing on Museum Hill in St. Joseph!
If that's inconvenient, check out the photo on the left -- of the Sheehan-Horton House, built in 1859, and showing every year of its age when it was purchased for $6,000 in 2002. The photo on the right shows its condition nine months later. Thanks to the dedication of its new owner, a grant from the city of St. Joseph (a certified local government) and Missouri's historic rehab tax credits, the six-room home built by a carpenter for his family sparkles just as much as the grand mansion built across the street in 1879.

There are similar "can-do" communities where developers have completed historic rehab tax credit projects across the state of Missouri -- from Arcadia, Boonville and Butler through Warrensburg, Washington, West Plains and Wildwood!

According to the FY 2007 report by the Department of the Interior's National Park Service, which oversees both the National Register and the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit program, Missouri once again ranks

FIRST in the nation with 189 federal historic rehab tax credit projects successfully completed in FY 2007!
FIRST in the nation with almost $535 million in up-front investment in labor and materials for the federal historic rehab tax credit projects completed in FY 2007!
FIRST in the nation with 174 preliminary applications approved in FY 2007!

Our ranking isn't happenstance. According to the NPS, Missouri

ranked FIRST in the nation in the number of federal historic rehab tax credit projects successfully completed in FY 2004!
ranked FIRST in the nation in the costs expended for labor and materials for the federal historic rehab tax credit projects completed in that fiscal year!
ranked FIRST in the nation in the number of preliminary applications filed in that fiscal year!

In the FY2004 report, the NPS stated that success of the historic rehab tax credit program created by Missouri's General Assembly in 1997, "is reflected in the fact that rehabilitation using the federal tax credits doubled" after the introduction of the state tax credits.

The National Park Service report points out not only that Missouri's ranking in these federal figures demonstrates the impact of the existence of the state tax credit on the use of the federal tax credits, but also that it is this winning combination that has enticed developers from other states to join local developers in hiring workers to rehab historic buildings in communities across Missouri!

Thanks to the two programs, underutilized buildings have found new life and Missouri's citizens new jobs in Arcadia, Boonville, Butler, California, Carthage, Chesterfield, Chillicothe, Clarksville, Columbia, Danville, Excelsior, Farmington, Florissant, Fulton, Hannibal, Hartsburg, Hermann, Independence, Jefferson City, Joplin, Kansas City, King City, Kirkwood, Lexington, Manchester, Maplewood, Neosho, Nevada, New Haven, New Melle, North Kansas City, Osceola, Pilot Grove, Rocheport, St. Charles, St. Joseph, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Sedalia, Springfield, Trenton, University City, Wellston, West Plains and Wildwood!

Another study recently completed by the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University, confirms that historic preservation isn't just preserving Missouri's aesthetic and cultural heritage – it's increasing economic activity by over a billion dollars a year!

According to the Rutgers study, the state's average investment of $25 million per year in historic preservation tax credits helps stimulate

$346 million in annual expenditures for the rehabilitation of historic buildings
$660 million in annual expenditures by tourists exploring the state's cultural resources
$5 million in annual investments related to the state's Main Street Program

The same study calculated the indirect impacts of those expenditures on Missouri's economy, including:

28,000 jobs created
$582 million in income generated
$917 in gross state product
$111 million in state and local taxes

Want to learn more?

NEW Donovan Rypkema, The Economics of Preservation in Missouri
Download six-page U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Federal Tax Incentives for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings: Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2004 PDF 256 KB.
Download 16-page Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Missouri: A Summary PDF 2,773 KB.
Download 207-page Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Missouri: Study Results PDF 859 KB.
Explore the impact of historic preservation tax credits on downtown West Plains, Missouri.
Investing in the Past: learn more about the history of Historic Preservation Tax Credits in Missouri.

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