Quote:
Originally Posted by seabee1526
The area is now classified as an Historic District. Were they waiting to see what the decision would be before they moved forward. Now that they can't demolish what are the options...move forward...let the area sit as is...sell?
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Local historic designation doesn't necessarily prevent demolition, but there's a few more hoops to jump through to get it done. They're definitely not going to sell as they still have a grand vision for this area, this land the buildings are on included. If it's become too much of a hassle to get demolition done, they may concede to integrate the historic buildings into their grand plan.
The issue is often taxes and financing. Many financial and tax incentives currently available favor new construction over rehabilitation. Rehabilitation isn't impossible, but often the less significant a building, the harder it is to get money and the more strict criteria that need to be met to qualify such financing of tax credit.
The unfortunate reality is simply that parking lots and parking garages generate easy revenue and require low maintenance versus adhering to a multitude of various regulations to qualify for rehabilitation funding/tax credits. So for the time being these buildings will likely sit for a while even if there's new (non-parking) construction in nearby lots.