Two projects to renovate historic industrial buildings in Toledo and another in Fostoria have received six-figure and seven-figure awards from the Ohio Department of Development’s Historic Preservation Tax Credits program.
The larger of the two Toledo projects, however, could be delayed from its scheduled 2022 start, at least in part because of the ongoing labor shortage that is especially acute in construction, its lead developer said Wednesday.
The $4.1 million tax credit granted to the Overmyer Lofts project in the former Commerce Paper building at 15 S. Ontario St. is the fourth-largest among 24 projects, involving 27 buildings, for which the state announced a combined $36.2 million in tax credits. The credits are expected to induce about $478 million in private investments in 10 Ohio communities.
The package also includes the Heritage Village II apartments in a former ice company at 1822 Cherry St., and the Security Building at 221 S. Main St. in downtown Fostoria.
“It’s an important step forward, but it doesn’t complete everything,” Overmyer developer Kevin Prater said Wednesday afternoon. “The current construction environment creates challenges on a daily basis.... I’m not sure it will go in 2022. There may not be enough construction labor in the market to do projects.”
Mr. Prater said the Overmyer project also still needs “some support from the [city] administration,” but he declined to elaborate.
The state’s announcement said the tax credits are not issued to project developers “until project construction is complete and all program requirements are verified.”
The Overymyer and Security buildings both have been vacant since 2017 and are to be converted to a mix of commercial and residential uses.
In a $37,318,215 project for which its developer has been awarded a $4.1 million tax credit, the Toledo building will feature a “historically compatible” ground-floor storefront that replaces a previous modification, along with 75 market-rate apartments in its seven upper floors.
The Security Building, so named because of its reinforced-concrete “fireproof” construction, housed several different businesses over the years including an ice rink. It also is to be transformed into commercial space on its ground floor and a mix of office suites and apartments on its upper floors — an $8,118,456 project for which a $1,584,721 tax credit was awarded.
Toledo Heritage Village II was converted to apartments during the 1980s and now has 23 units of affordable housing for families and seniors, and is to be renovated under its $250,000 tax credit’s terms. The current $4,048,000 project involves just the one building, but that building is part of a larger project comprising more than 30 small residential buildings in all.
First Published December 15, 2021, 10:37 p.m.
