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Spillway near listing on National Register
Spillway near listing on National Register
By BARBARA CHRISTIAN
The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board issued its recommendation last week that the Spillway property in Chagrin Falls be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
One final hurdle remains before it becomes official. That should come in the next 60 days with review by the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., "which generally accepts the recommendation of the Ohio Historic Preservation Advisory Board," said Wendy Naylor, Spillway's historic preservation consultant and property nominator.
The listing is important to property owner Spillway Partners LLC, because the designation makes it eligible for state and federal tax credits totaling 45 percent of the cost of rehabilitating the property, she said.
Spillway Partners LLC is made up of Robert Darden, William Phillips and Darren Wyville, all of Chagrin Falls, who purchased the property in 2008 with plans for a multi-use development. Their plans include a micro-brewery and restaurant anchoring the redevelopment, along with residential, office and retail uses.
According to Mrs. Naylor, the partnership is preparing applications for the next round of state and federal tax credits.
"This will be the first historic-rehabilitation-tax-credit project for Chagrin Falls and will provide a big boost for the Spillway project and the village," she said. That also includes "returning this last remaining mill in the village to productive use."
Mrs. Naylor said the federal tax credit is against the federal taxes owed by the owner of the property, while the state historic tax credit is a distribution of money directly to the owner. The latter is not related to property taxes beyond improving and revitalizing a property, which, in turn, brings a higher property tax value, she said.
The National Park Service gets involved with the National Register program, because it, along with the Internal Revenue Service, administers the federal tax credits. Those amount to 20 percent of the rehabilitation costs to qualified projects, Mrs. Naylor said.
Not all states have adopted the historic-tax-credit program, as Ohio has, she said. It allows for an additional 25 percent tax credit for a total of 45 percent available from both programs.
To qualify for the historic tax credits, a property must be income producing and listed on the National Register.
Historic-rehabilitation tax credits were created to encourage private-sector reinvestment in the reuse of historic buildings which "define and anchor a community," Mrs. Naylor said.
They have become one of the country's most successful and cost-effective community-revitalization programs, because they provide an incentive for redevelopment of historic buildings, she said.
"Oftentimes these projects get going in communities and have the effect of bringing a whole neighborhood on board by encouraging more reinvestment and revitalization."
In addition to improving the economic health of a community in those ways, projects assisted by tax credits serve to fuel job creation beyond the normal work provided by redevelopment, Mrs. Naylor said.
"Historic properties often require more craftsmanship and labor-intensive type of work," she said.
Mrs. Naylor, of the Naylor Co., and her colleague Diana Wellman, of Preservation Principles of Cleveland, prepared the nomination and were in Columbus last week to make the Spillway presentation.
For its National Register of Historic Places listing, the Spillway property is to be listed as the "Adams Bag Company, Paper Mill & Sack Factory."
Mrs. Naylor said the Spillway nomination received letters of support for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places by Chagrin Falls Mayor Thomas Brick, the Chagrin Falls Historical Society and conservationist William Ginn.
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