The tower tuscaloosa6/13/2023 Parker says that developers often consult with expert architects who have experience working with historic buildings. The rehabilitation of the buildings can serve to bring not only the individual project back to life but will also stimulate development, in not only the immediate area but throughout the town.” “They can really depress the whole downtown area just by their existence. “It’s a community service benefit when developers come to locations that have a number of old and rundown historic buildings that are often centrally located in a downtown area, ” Parker says. In fact, 35 states now have historic tax credits. Parker says state historic tax credits have already helped transform older neighborhoods and cities in both Louisiana and Mississippi. To help navigate Alabama’s newly minted historic tax credit rules, Yandell and Glassell sought advice from New Orleans attorney Trey Parker, at Butler Snow LLP, who specializes in tax incentives and public finance. “A lot of the upper floors were vacant, and no renovation had taken place on those upper floors, ” he says. “We put the building under contract and had a due diligence period of several months to get in and survey the building and figure out how it could be renovated, because this would be a mixed use of offices and apartments, ” says Dean Nix, a senior vice president at Harbert Realty. “You’re encouraging development rather than just bulldozing these great buildings that we have here, and giving developers the incentive to rehabilitate them and do something with them.”īut Yandell and Glassell set their sites on the PNC building long before passage of Alabama’s tax credits, and they turned to Harbert Realty Services to help them acquire it. “The Legislature wanted to do something that was pro-business and pro-growth as far as helping development, ” says Byrd. In addition, project expenditures must be greater than 50 percent of the purchase price or $25, 000, whichever is higher.Ĭonversely, the federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit is 20 percent of qualified expenses and is limited to buildings used for businesses or “income-producing purposes” and certified by the National Park Service.Īlabama’s new tax credits could help provide a greater stimulus to the state’s economy and boost its tax coffers, says Beau Byrd, an attorney with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, whose firm worked with economic development groups, like the Downtown Mobile Alliance and REV Birmingham, to lobby for the state historic tax credits. Qualified buildings are those listed on the National Register of Historic Places or pre-1936 commercial buildings. Yandell says the $14 million project to create 69 one-, two- and three-bedroom luxury apartments got an extra boost when, for the first time, the state Legislature passed the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit program in 2013, to aid those seeking to rehabilitate historic commercial and residential buildings in Alabama.Īlabama’s historic tax credit is 25 percent of eligible expenditures for certified historic commercial or residential buildings. Today Yandell and Glassell have converted the old office tower into The Tower Apartments, which are set to open in January 2015. So it’s great to be able to take a building like this and revitalize it for the whole community.” It’s been here forever and helped produce commerce for the city. This one has a lot of history about it, because it was the First National Bank building. “That’s just something my partner and I like to do is take old buildings and renovate them. “We like to work with old buildings, ” says Yandell. In 2012, they announced the purchase of the building, which was by then home to PNC Bank. LLC, a company known for redeveloping historic buildings, talked with business partner John Glassell about buying the Tuscaloosa office tower. Yandell, a principle at the Memphis-based Heritage Land & Development Co. Whilldin designed the structure, which was built for First National Bank in 1925. Real estate developer William Yandell was having lunch with his son in downtown Tuscaloosa in 2009 when he spotted one of the city’s iconic landmarks, the 11-story,Ĭlassic revival skyscraper at the northwest corner of University Boulevard and Greensboro Avenue.
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