The Historic Tax Credit Committee approved additional properties to receive or be placed on the waiting list for Alabama’s Historic Tax Credit. As a reminder, the Historic Tax Credit Bill set aside $100 million in tax credits for projects on historic properties over five years from 2018 to 2022, to be split $60 million urban and $40 million rural. Aided by the Alabama Historic Commission, the Committee meets quarterly to approve and grade project applications.

The Committee meeting on June 24 was conducted virtually and led by Historic Commission Director Lisa Jones, who was assisted by Division Director Lee Anne Wofford. Committee members approved and graded six rural projects and seven urban projects.  

The six new rural projects, the locations, and amounts requested by each are listed above. Since 2018, 22 rural applications have been approved, although three rural projects have had their approvals rescinded. With two rescinded projects receiving a second approval upon re-application (Old Baptist Hospital and Pratt Continental Gin), the total is 21 rural projects approved. Of these, one rural project, Womack’s Theater in Monroeville, is completed, while the other 20 are in various stages.  

From a monetary standpoint, these projects have received or will receive just over $16.5 million from the Alabama Historic Tax Credit for rural Alabama. But almost $9.7 million from the 2018 and 2019 rural allocation was left on the table. Under the Historic Tax Credit Bill, any rural funds remaining unallocated after a set amount of time reverts to the urban portion. This means that the $9.7 million has gone to urban projects. 

The seven urban projects approved include six new projects and one project receiving a second, or supplemental, request. All seven project allocations are on the waitlist. Since 2018, the Committee has approved 74 urban projects. Fifty-four of these projects received or will receive an allocation from the 2018-2022 urban funds, and eight urban projects have been completed. The other 20 urban projects are on the waitlist in case the rural portion remains unused or future funding is allocated by the Alabama Legislature. 

The allocations from 2018 to 2022 for the 54 projects total nearly $69.7 million dollars, while the 20 waitlisted projects request over $16.25 million. The majority of the 74 projects are in Birmingham (43) and Mobile (21), while the other ten are split between Montgomery (3), Huntsville (2), Fairhope (2), Tuscaloosa (1), Homewood (1), and Daphne (1). It is interesting to note that no urban projects have had their approvals rescinded.

After this last round of properties, none of the tax credit of $60 million remains for urban properties, and, as stated above, an additional $16.25 million in requests is waitlisted. For the rural portion, over $5.8 million remains for the 2021 allocation, and the entire $8 million remains for the 2022 allocation. 

The map below shows where each project, including rescinded, is located.