Breaking Down the 2018 Historic Preservation Economic Impact Report

by Derek King, Principal & Director of Operations at Preservation Studios

It’s that time of year again: Rutgers and the National Park Service have issued their Annual Report on the Economic Impact of the Federal Historic Credit for FY 2018. By clicking that link, you can get plenty of great summaries, as well as inspiring case studies, but some of the biggest things to take note of are:

• Over 128,000 jobs created
• $5.4 billion in income generated
• $2 billion in taxes ($700 million of which were state and local) generated

This year, rather than digest the report page by page, we’re going to draw attention to some of our favorite tidbits from the report that may get glossed over otherwise.

Job Creation

While a majority of the jobs created were in construction (46K), manufacturing (28K), and “services” (21K), there are some interesting examples of how historic rehab construction has far-flung impacts on other industries as well:

• 1,150 jobs were created in mining, most likely tied to aggregate used in most materials, but possibly also in stone used in replication and restoration of lost features.
• 603 jobs were created in “Agriculture Services, Forestry, and Fish”, which we can assume is mostly lumber-related, but may also be tied to food consumption by job workforces.
• 330 jobs were created in agriculture seems pretty simple: workers have to eat!
• 5,211 jobs were created in Finance, insurance, and real estate, which underscores the complexity of any large real estate transaction, but especially a historic tax credit funded project.
• 4,866 jobs were created in “Transport and public utilities” demonstrating not only the movement of goods, but workers as well, in addition to the work-site needs (electricity, water, etc).

Tax Credit Usage By State


New York still had a big year, but created 3,000 fewer jobs after total rehab costs dropped $200 million from 2017-2018. Even so, New York generated $665 million in income and $111.8 million in state and local taxes, and was still the leader in total rehabilitation costs.

Texas is probably one of the best case studies for how the introduction of a matching state historic tax credit can impact total credit usage. In 2015, the state created a 25% state income historic tax credit, and went from generating only $35 million in total rehabilitation costs to $180 million last year in 2017. That $180 million was a full 35% of their total five-year usage, a huge bump likely representing the first batch of projects to complete a full-rehab using state credits in addition to federal credits. In 2018, their total rehab costs skyrocketed to $622 million (a 345% increase), creating 10,054 jobs and generating $33.8 million in state and local taxes.

As a counterpoint (suggesting that State Credits are *not* end all, be all), Tennessee is one of just 15 states without any form of historic tax credit, and saw a 1000% increase in rehabilitation expenses, going from $38 million in 2017 to $346 million in 2018. Earlier this year, lawmakers and local leaders pushed for the state to adopt a state credit and their high-usage in 2018 suggests it could help continue a rising trend of investment in their historic building stock

Just like Tennessee, ascribing HTC usage to state credits can be tricky, as states with established HTC programs saw major swings, including Ohio (nearly doubling from $488 million in 2017 to $821 million in 2018), Illinois (shrinking from $420 million in 2017 to $266 million in 2018), Minnesota (going from $360 million in 2017 to $85 million in 2018) and Rhode Island (like Tennessee, increasing over $300 million between 2017 and 2018).

Notably, Illinois expanded their historic tax credit program this year to take it from a five-city program to statewide, so it will be interesting to see if their usage increases in years to come.

The states with the highest number of application approvals in 2018 (New York, Missouri, Virginia, and Ohio all had more than 70 Part 3 approvals, and more than 75 Part 2s) often have pretty similar total rehabilitation costs each year.

In states with dramatic changes, there were far fewer Part 2s and Part 3s approved in 2018 (Rhode Island: 17 and 8 respectively; Illinois: 27 and 20; Minnesota: 15 and 10) suggesting major swings in total rehabilitation costs are tied to fewer but larger projects.

Alaska (0.0), New Hampshire (0.0), Nevada (0.0), Idaho (0.4), and Wyoming (0.8) had the lowest usage of the historic tax credit last year, and Alaska has not had any certified rehabilitation costs in the last five years (though, to be fair, Nevada has only had $1.4 million and Wyoming $2.7 million in the last five years as well).


Interesting Projects

The photos in the report suggest some very interesting projects that we’d love to get our eyes on (not just their rehabilitation scope, but their National Register nomination):

• Our very own Parkside Candy, a candy and ice cream parlor here in Buffalo NY with an Adamesque-interior, was shown on page 3.
• Modernist architecture was front and center with the State Hotel in Dallas, Texas (also page 3) and the Jack Tar Motor Lodge in Durham, North Carolina (page 13).
• The Miller Theatre in Augusta, Georgia (page 13) looks stunning, both on its Art Moderne facade and stunning lobby.
• I did actually google the Kunia Camp in Hawaii since I was so intrigued-- take a look!