Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Editor's Note: We told you you would hear from more than the Michigan Main Street Center @ MSHDA staff! We're fortunate enough to have our partner and good friend Nancy Finegood from the Michigan Historic Preservation Network write for us this week. The MHPN is an extremely good source of information. If you haven't used them in your community, you should!

By Nancy Finegood
Executive Director
Michigan Historic Preservation Network
Finegood@mhpn.org
www.mhpn.org

At a time when change is the buzz word, you might ask what historic preservation has to do with it. Many believe that preservation is about history, stagnant in one point in time, whether it is the Victorian era or the Recent Past. I disagree.

Historic buildings often outlive their original purposes. Schools are closed because of dwindling enrollment in the neighborhood and pressure to build new, modern facilities. Congregations may leave their historic churches to follow the flight from the city to the suburbs. Many factories around the state have been abandoned, when there is no longer a demand for their product. When these once vital resources in the community are abandoned, they are often viewed as eyesores fit for the wrecking ball.

Adaptive reuse is all about change. It is a process that modifies buildings for new purposes while maintaining their historic integrity. Most older buildings have great potential for adaptation to a different use. However, it takes people with creative vision to see new life in the crumbling bricks and mortar. Adaptive reuse is also a very green way of thinking. It reduces the destruction of abandoned buildings and reduces the amount of debris going into landfills.

There are a variety of incentives available that encourage the reuse of historic buildings, Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act exemptions, Brownfield Tax Credits, New Market Tax Credits, Federal Rehabilitation Tax credits and the newly enhanced Michigan Rehabilitation Tax Credits.

There are many wonderful examples of adaptive reuse all over Michigan. The Inn at Ferry Street in Detroit’s New Center area developed when a local group was intent on saving several historic homes from demolition. The Inn has added a renewed vibrancy to the block that has echoed throughout the neighborhood.

Talk about a great example of innovation and change! Spartan Internet Consulting bought the 85-year-old Holmes Street School on Lansing’s Eastside for $115,000. The company estimates that a brand new 32,000 sq. ft. building would have cost $3 to $4 million, which is significantly more than the $2 million they are spending on the rehabilitation. The entire first floor will house the community-based Information Technology Empowerment Center to teach kids about technology and create a talent pool for local IT employers. Spartan’s headquarters are on the third floor.

If change is the destination, then historic preservation is the best route to take.

"...it is again no question of expediency or feeling whether we shall preserve the buildings of past times or not. We have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us." John Ruskin, "The Lamp of Memory," 1848