Presenter: Kerry L. Traynor, President and Principal Investigator, kta preservation specialists LLC
Buffalo’s Renaissance has been considered by many to be an over-night phenomenon – if only this were true. Our position as the terminus of the Erie Canal established Buffalo as the largest inland port and the wealthiest city per capita in the United States at the turn of the 20 th Century. The city had one of the nation’s largest rail networks for freight and passenger traffic, second only to Chicago. Buffalo was the world’s largest flour milling center, had major steel mills, and manufactured everything from automobiles to malt and beer. However, like many rust belt cities Buffalo saw a post-industrial decline towards the end of the 20 th Century, marked by a loss in manufacturing jobs and population. As a result, Buffalo was left with a portfolio of vacant or underutilized buildings – industrial daylight factories and grain elevators, commercial corridors, and institutional buildings.
There are many factors that have contributed to Buffalo’s Renaissance, including the utilization of Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits as an economic strategy in the rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of historic buildings. Historic Preservation Tax Incentives, established by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and amended by Public Law No: 115-97 on December 22, 2017, are available as an incentive for preservation, specifically, a 20% federal tax credit is available for the “certified rehabilitation” of a “certified historic” structure. Similarly in New York State a 20% state tax credit is available. For projects with qualified rehabilitation expenses (QREs) under 2.5 million dollars a 30% state tax credit is available. Further, the syndication of these credits provides upfront capital to the developer, often filling funding gaps in a project’s capital stack.
Examples of projects in Buffalo include the Kam Malt House; Hens & Kelly Department Store; the Buffalo General Electric Company Building, and the Buffalo Psychiatric Hospital.
After attending this session, participants should be able to:
- Be conversant about Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits:
- What they are
- Application process
- Syndication Process
- Understand how Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits contribute to Project Success and Buffalo’s Renaissance
SPEAKER INFO
Kerry L. Traynor, March; MS Architectural History
President
kta preservation specialists LLC
Buffalo, NY
716.864.0628
ktraynor@kta-preservation.com
Kerry Traynor has a diverse background including work in the private and public sectors, as well
as in academia. Her experience has included private practice, scholarly research and
publication, and teaching at the collegiate level: architecture & landscape architecture history;
design and historic preservation theory, and award-winning preservation planning studios. She
is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) School of
Architecture and Planning, where she directs the historic preservation program.
Kerry founded kta preservation specialists, in 1999. As principal investigator for historic
architecture and architectural history, Kerry has worked on numerous compliance, restoration,
and rehabilitation projects in Buffalo and throughout the country over the past 26-years. She is
qualified under 36CFR61 and by the Secretary of the Interior (48CFR 44738-9) for History,
Architectural History, and Historic Architecture and Historic Preservation.