Cincinnati was the big winner this week with one third of all Historic Preservation Tax Credits announced earlier this week by the Kasich administration. The Ohio Development Services Agency (DSA) and State Historic Preservation Office awarded 26 candidates a total of $27.8 million to rehabilitate 39 historic buildings in 12 Ohio counties. Hotel Secor in Toledo and the former Crosley Radio building in Cincinnati tied for the largest individual awards, at $5 million apiece.

DSA Director David Goodman joined Sen. Frank LaRose (R-Copley) and Director Mariangela Pfister of the Ohio History Connection Tax Credit Program in Wooster to announce Round 16 awards and an estimated $261.4 million in private investment.

“Preserving these historic buildings will help revitalize neighborhoods and downtowns,” Goodman said in a statement. “Historic rehabilitation transforms underutilized properties into assets for communities.”

He said many of the buildings are now vacant and generate little economic activity. Once rehabilitated, they will drive further investment and interest in adjacent properties, Goodman said.

Cincinnati developers will receive more than $9.3 million to renovate five historic buildings in Hamilton County.

Developers are not issued credits until construction is complete and all program requirements are verified.

The Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit is administered in partnership with the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office. It determines whether a property qualifies as a historic building and whether rehabilitation plans comply with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. 

Southwest

771 and 772 East McMillan Street (Cincinnati, Hamilton County)
Total Project Cost: $2,295,211
Total Tax Credit: $250,000
Address: 771 and 772 E. McMillan St.; 2504 Chatham St., 45206
Investors: Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and private developers.

This project will redevelop three buildings, two of which are historic. The Hamilton Building at 771 McMillan was built in 1883 as a single family residence. 772 McMillan is a mixed-use building with three commercial spaces on the ground floor and apartments above. Plans call for the rehabilitated historic buildings to house seven apartments and a restaurant/bar. The non-historic building at 2504 Chatham has six apartments to be rehabilitated.

Crosley Building (Cincinnati)
Total Project Cost: $45,333,987
Total Tax Credit: $5,000,000
Address: 1333 Arlington St., 45225

Built in 1930 and designed by Samuel Hannaford and Sons, the building was headquarters to the Crosley Radio Corporation and home to their design and manufacturing operations. The nine-story structure and an adjacent building will feature 324 market rate apartments. This is the first Historic Preservation Tax Credit project in the Camp Washington neighborhood of Cincinnati.

Film Center Building (Cincinnati)
Total Project Cost: $10,725,620
Total Tax Credit: $1,067,220
Address: 1632 Central Parkway, 45202
Investor: Urban Sites

Located in the Over-the-Rhine Historic District, this building was among several that served the film industry. The first floor will be redeveloped into commercial space for office and restaurant tenants and the upper floors into 46 apartments.

Market Square II (Cincinnati)
Total Project Cost: $17,934,738
Total Tax Credit: $1,790,000
Address: 1807-1830 Elm St., 127 Findlay St., and 1827 Logan St., 45202
Investor: Model Group

The project includes 10 historic buildings and one new building to be constructed near Over-the-Rhine’s Findlay Market. The second phase of a larger redevelopment by Model Group, the buildings will include 55 apartments and 24,000 square foot of commercial space.

Strietmann Biscuit Co. Building (Cincinnati)
Total Project Cost: $12,288,623
Total Tax Credit: $1,200,000
Address: 223-235 West 12th St., 45202
Investor: Grandin Properties

The site is the former manufacturing and office facility for Strietmann Biscuit Co., which made baked goods including biscuits, cookies, crackers and pastries. Located in the Over-the-Rhine Historic District, the building was erected in 1899. After Strietmann moved to a new facility in the 1940s, the building featured a number of mixed uses until vacated. The site will now house offices and a restaurant.

Northwest

Hotel Secor (Toledo, Lucas County)
Total Project Cost: $35,730,832
Total Tax Credit: $5,000,000
Address: 413-425 Jefferson Avenue, 43604

Constructed in 1908, Hotel Secor was once Toledo’s preeminent hotel. The hotel was converted into offices and space for a charter school and artists’ studios over the years but is now at least 85 percent vacant. After rehabilitation, the property will again serve downtown Toledo as a high-quality, full-service hotel with 144 guest rooms.

Northeast

2125 Superior Avenue (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County)
Total Project Cost: $13,601,108
Total Tax Credit: $826,667
Address: 2125 Superior Ave., 44114

The two adjacent commercial buildings will be converted into 64 apartments in Cleveland’s downtown business district near Cleveland State University. Built in 1914 in an expansive garment district, the buildings saw a variety of clothing manufacturing and other textile industry uses in the early 20th century.

City Savings Bank and Trust Building (Alliance, Stark County)
Total Project Cost: $8,125,790
Total Tax Credit: $812,579
Address: 449 East Main St., 44601

This eight-story building in downtown Alliance was built in 1925-26 as the City Savings Bank and Trust. It contained the bank on the first floor and office tenants above. The Neoclassical building has two story Ionic columns along its Main Street facade. In 1991, it was converted into affordable senior housing. This rehabilitation project will preserve and improve 42 affordable senior apartments.

Faber Building (Wooster, Wayne County)
Total Project Cost: $860,000
Total Tax Credit: $168,500
Address: 148 West Liberty St., 44691

The first to be awarded Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits in Wooster and Wayne County, the 1890 Faber Building is a mixed-use commercial site in downtown Wooster. Vacant the last 12 years, it once housed a variety of first floor retail tenants and apartments on the second and third floors. Vertical Runner, a specialty running/athletic store, will locate in the commercial space and the upper stories will be for residential use. 

Falls Theater (Cuyahoga Falls, Summit County)
Total Project Cost: $1,279,475
Total Tax Credit: $249,999
Address: 2218-2220 Front St., 44221

The historic Falls Theater space, two storefronts and four apartments on the second floor have been empty for more than a decade. Tax credits will help transform the theater into a microbrewery and restaurant. Commercial and apartment spaces will be restored to their original intent.

Mueller Electric Company (Cleveland)
Total Project Cost: $17,472,000
Total Tax Credit: $1,745,000
Address: 1587 East 31st St., 44114

Starting in 1922, the Mueller Electric Company Building rose in phases for the production and distribution of alligator clips and other insulated clips. After rehabilitation, the building will have 60 market rate apartments drawing residents to the St. Clair Superior neighborhood close to the Cleveland State University campus.

Sanford House (Cleveland)
Total Project Cost: $1,481,674
Total Tax Credit: $249,999
Address: 2843 Franklin Blvd., 44113

Sanford House is an 1862 Italianate brick building in Cleveland’s Ohio City Historic District. Once home to families of prominent business owners, it later housed a juvenile detention home, nursing home, and school for children with disabilities. The building served more recently as the county archive. The now- vacant site will be rehabilitated as small business office space and four market rate apartments.

Veronika Building (Lakewood, Cuyahoga County)
Total Project Cost: $502,760
Total Tax Credit: $82,402
Address:  12301 Madison Ave., 44107

Lakewood’s first Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit project, this small commercial building in the Birdtown National Register Historic District once housed a bar on the first floor and apartments above and behind. The 1970s storefront modifications will be replaced with new wood storefronts modeled on the originals, reopening the commercial space to the street. The apartments will also be completely rehabilitated.

Joseph and Feiss Clothcraft Warehouse (Cleveland)
Total Project Cost: $16,618,799
Total Tax Credit: $826,668
Address: 2149 West 53rd St., 44102

Located in Cleveland’s Stockyards neighborhood, the warehouse will be rehabilitated as the home of Menlo Park Academy, a K-8 school for gifted children. Once a large clothing manufacturing operation, the site has been abandoned for years. The large windows and skylights and wide open floor plans that served the factory will be maintained to serve the needs of the school.

Western

Fire Blocks Lofts (Dayton, Montgomery County)
Total Project Cost: $23,592,093
Total Tax Credit: $4,481,132
Address: 100 and 111-129 East Third St., 45402

The project includes two properties in the Fire Blocks Historic District on the east edge of downtown: the Huffman Block and Elk’s Building. Both were built shortly after the floods and fires of 1913. Facing each other, the buildings lie near the site at 124 East Third St. that was awarded credits in Round 14. Owners plan to construct 94 market rate apartments, with retail and commercial spaces on the first floors.

Hosier and Jones Houses (Dayton)
Total Project Cost: $513,157
Total Tax Credit: $106,000
Address: 329 Central Ave. and 104 Federal St., 44506

Hosier and Jones are a unique project in which the houses were moved from one area to another in the same historic district to save them from demolition. The two single-family homes were built in the early 1920s in Dayton’s Grafton Hill Historic District. The project will convert them to institutional housing units for students and employees associated with nearby Grandview Hospital.

Central

14-16 North Park Place (Newark, Licking County)
Total Project Cost: $1,546,489
Total Tax Credit: $249,999
Address: 14-16 North Park Place, 43055

This project faces the Licking County Courthouse on the north side of the square and contains first-floor commercial space with upper levels that have been vacant for decades. The project will renew the upper floors and rear spaces into three apartments and office spaces.

100 Jefferson Avenue (Columbus, Franklin County)
Total Project Cost: $1,370,864
Total Tax Credit:  $133,155
Address: 100 Jefferson Ave., 43215

100 Jefferson Ave. is part of the Jefferson Center for Learning and the Arts, a campus of buildings that house a variety of nonprofit organizations. Built in the late 1870s, this Italianate style house has been vacant for more than 10 years. The project will rehabilitate the space as offices.

457 North High (Columbus)
Total Project Cost: $1,514,699
Total Tax Credit: $120,800
Address: 457 North High St., 43215

Once part of the well-known Yankee Trader complex, this building has been vacant for many years. The project includes the neighboring building at 459 North High and will convert the space to restaurant use on the first floor and offices above. The former Yankee Trader complex, completed in 2014, also received historic tax credits in a previous round.

459 North High (Columbus)
Total Project Cost: $1,519,574
Total Tax Credit: $120,800
Address: 459 North High St., 43215

Also part of the former Yankee Trader complex, the building has been vacant for many years. The project includes the neighboring building at 457 North High and will convert the space to restaurant use on the first floor and offices above.

Circleville High School (Circleville, Pickaway County)
Total Project Cost: $20,219,948
Total Tax Credit: $543,163
Address: 520 South Court St., 43113
Investor: Woda Group

This 1916 high school and elementary school, with a 1937 addition, served Circleville’s children until the end of the 2015 school year. The city’s first Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit project, the building will be rehabilitated by Woda Group into 49 one- and two-bedroom senior apartments and a community cafe. An auxiliary building will be converted to a greenhouse for residents and to grow produce for the cafe. 

Green Lawn Abbey (Franklin Township, Franklin County)
Total Project Cost: $184,263
Total Tax Credit: $98,000
Address: 700 Greenlawn Ave. 43223

This rehabilitation project will renew a historic mausoleum for continued use as intended, but also as a unique special event space for rental and cultural programming. Nearly abandoned and suffering from damage caused by vandalism, the building is now secure and ready to be restored. It will undergo modern upgrades such as improved entrances and restrooms.

Municipal Light Plant (Columbus)
Total Project Cost: $20,163,767
Total Tax Credit: $2,000,000
Address: 55 West Nationwide Blvd., 43215

The oldest part of the Municipal Light Plant was built in 1903-1904, with additions added between 1937 and 1954 to provide power generation for Columbus’ municipal electric utility. The building housed coal movement and storage facilities, boilers and turbines, ceasing operations in the late 1970s. The project will convert the space to offices and a large auction house.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish House (Columbus)
Total Project Cost: $1,541,339
Total Tax Credit: $250,000
Address: 36 South Garfield Ave., 43205

The parish house supported the adjacent St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from the time of its construction in 1926 until the mid-1990s, when the church closed. It has since served as a social service agency and a private residence, but has been vacant for the past five years. Plans call for 16 new apartments that will share access to its large and unique common spaces.

Southeast

16 West Union (Athens, Athens County)
Total Project Cost: $2,396,864
Total Tax Credit: $250,000
Address: 16 West Union Street, 45701

This project involves the rehabilitation and reconstruction of buildings damaged by a 2014 fire in downtown Athens. The first floor will be returned to commercial uses with a restaurant as tenant, while the upper floor will include four apartments with four bedrooms each to house a total of 16 tenants.

313 Second Street (Marietta, Washington County)
Total Project Cost: $2,096,000
Total Tax Credit: $249,999
Address: 313 Second St., 45750
Investor: Perry and Associates

The Marietta-based accounting firm will rehabilitate the former Wilderman Ford Motor Car dealership as their new offices, housing 30-40 employees. With various retail tenants over the decades, the building has sat vacant for more than 20 years. This is Marietta’s second Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit project and will enhance the downtown area across from the Washington County Courthouse.