Cincinnati, SW Ohio projects may receive historic tax credits after all

Bloomfield/Schon + Partners is seeking $4.5 million in tax credits for its mixed-use Factory Square project in Northside (CLICK)

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland's proposed economic stimulus package includes $120 million in funding for the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit program, funding that could help multiple projects in southwest Ohio that were largely shut out of the money when the program ceased last month.

On March 13, the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD), the agency in charge of administering the tax credits, announced that the two-year pilot program would be shut down immediately because the $120 million in initial appropriations for the program had been exhausted.

Without a dollar cap on individual awards and with projects being approved for credits on a first-come, first-served basis, the money quickly dried up.

Over 100 projects submitted applications for the credits, and of the 37 who were accepted into the program, only three were in southwest Ohio - and none in Hamilton County.

The bulk of the funding went to projects in Cleveland, Akron and Canton, with Cuyahoga County alone receiving funding for 20 projects.

State Senator Eric Kearney (D-9th) applauded the additional funds, which will represent $143 million in new growth for Greater Cincinnati.

"These additional funds will mean the difference for 29 Hamilton County redevelopment projects,” he said in a media release yesterday. “Projects in Over-the-Rhine, Northside, Downtown and many others will be helped."

The Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit is equal to 25 percent of qualified renovation and rehabilitation expenditures, refundable when the project is complete and generating tax revenue back to the state.

Previous reading on BC:
SW Ohio largely bypassed by failed tax credit program (3/18/08)