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Location in Historic Business District


Padberg4252

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I am working with a developer in a small town for a site in a downtown historic business district. He is concerned about the code requirements that will need to be incorporated into the design of the new building. We are both concerned about approval from the local city planner. Has anyone had similar experience building new or rehabbing a building in a downtown business district, specifically a historic one? The city planner for the town would like to discuss with another local agent who had to approve the distillery's operations, go through zoning changes, etc. If you are able to share contact information for the local agent you dealt with, please PM me. It would be greatly appreciated.

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We tried this and failed. The local historic preservation committee wouldn't let us have signage, dock doors, or a cooling condenser in the alley. The local fire Marshall told us we needed to add doors for emergencies, but again, the historic preservation committee said no changes were allowed in the zone. That's why many of the shops are still standing empty.

In the end we chose a location in an industrial park that let us do whatever we needed.

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I am in the process of doing this exact thing currently. Our building is just off the town square in a small town historic commercial district. We are going to take advantage of federal and state tax credits for the renovation of the building. We met last week with someone from the state archives and history department. Our state currently provides a 25% tax credit and the National Park Service provides a 20% tax credit. These percentages apply to any money that is invested for renovations above and beyond the purchase price of the building. For example, if you bought a building for $100k and invested $100k, you could receive $45k in total tax credits. If you invested $200k in renovations you could receive $90k in tax credits. There are lots of restrictions on what type of renovations qualify but most renovations actually do qualify. A new parking lot outside or your actual stills and equipment are covered, but adding walls, flooring, roofs, painting, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, etc. qualifies.

As far as getting approval from the city for any renovations, we met early on with the city's historical preservation group and economic development department. This city has been somewhat economically depressed and has been agreeable to most of our ideas for renovating this building. They are really happy that someone is investing in the city and will help with tourism.

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Also, in the last week we were able to get a special use permit from the city to allow distillery operations in the historic commercial district. In our case, the downtown area wasn't zoned to allow manufacturing and a distillery was not an expressly listed permitted use. We had to submit an application to the zoning board to get a special use permit to allow the distillery. The zoning board voted in favor and made a recommendation to the city council to approve it. We met early on with the alderman over our ward as well as the mayor before we even submitted the application. Folks in small towns like to be clued in and involved from the start. Later on they'll be able to point to their constituents that they helped bring in a new business. We are in the deep south in the bible belt and I thought surely we'd face at least some opposition in town due to local politics and religious objections. The response so far has actually been just the opposite. Everyone has been overwhelmingly supportive. We actually have a small church located just two doors down and had to receive their written approval by state law. The church was fine with our operation once we explained everything to them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the responses guys. Glad to hear that the process is moving along for you well dwrich. I will be starting the zoning approval process with the city in the next month which is about a 2-3 month process and involves a public hearing. From my discussions with people in the city, most are excited about a dsitllery in the area.

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