There’s value in preserving the historically significant buildings that make up many of Maine’s downtowns and breathing new life into them.
That’s a principle Maine voters endorsed in June 2010 when they signed off on borrowing $1.25 million to create a fund designed to help historic preservation groups buy old properties and sell them to new owners.
The bond proceeds were earmarked for the state’s Historic Preservation Revolving Fund. Nonprofit and government preservation groups would apply for aid to purchase historically significant and economically valuable properties at risk, ensure they are preserved, and sell them to new owners willing to rehabilitate them. The sale proceeds would return to the fund to pay for the next historically significant property purchase.
More than five years after voters authorized it, the Historic Preservation Revolving Fund hasn’t funded any property transactions, and $1.05 million of the bond amount is no longer available to the state: The bond expired in June because five years had passed since voters authorized it.
In January, lawmakers will debate the best approach to reauthorizing nearly $6.5 million in expired bonds earmarked for land protection through Land for Maine’s Future. They should add another bond reauthorization to their agenda: the $1.05 million in yet-to-be-tapped funds for historic preservation.
The historic preservation bond was among those Gov. Paul LePage first refused to issue in 2012, saying he wouldn’t allow them to be sold “until we get our spending problem fully under control.” He then used those bonds as leverage in his 2013 battle with the Legislature over the repayment of nearly $500 million in debt to the state’s hospitals.
LePage later signed his hospital repayment bill into law and pledged to release the held-up bonds. At that point, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the agency charged with administering the revolving fund, had to finish writing rules to govern the fund. Those didn’t become final until spring 2014.
“The program was in place, and the funds were there,” said Kirk Mohney, assistant director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, “but again, we didn’t have any specific projects that we knew we were going to put the money toward.”
The commission drew down $200,000 from the bond, but the fund was slow to catch on. An early round of requests for applications attracted one proposal that the property owner subsequently withdrew from consideration, Mohney said.
As the fund was starting up, “the economy for sale of any property was so poor that there really would not have been much of an opportunity to show results from the program at the early stages anyway,” said Greg Paxton, executive director of Maine Preservation in Yarmouth, which worked with the former State Planning Office to first develop the revolving fund in advance of the 2010 bond vote.
Now, the fund deserves a chance to work. Paxton’s organization has submitted applications to have two property transactions paid for by the fund: the James O. Crooker House in downtown Norway and the Odd Fellow’s Hall in West Pembroke. We hope the Maine Historic Preservation Commission sees additional proposals.
Preserving historically significant buildings isn’t just about preserving the past for history’s sake. Preservation has also shown its environmental and economic value.
Rehabilitating and repurposing an old structure is significantly more environment-friendly than tearing it down and starting over. It cuts down on construction debris, and it’s much less energy-intensive to start with an existing structure rather than start anew.
During construction, rehabilitation also contributes more to the local economy. Rehabilitation is more labor-intensive than materials-intensive, so it creates more construction jobs. And the end result is one that often boosts the values of surrounding properties.
From an economic development perspective, a rehabbed commercial building is prime property for small, startup businesses in search of cheaper rents, and a historic district can often be a draw for “heritage tourists” — a class of tourists who, research shows, stick around for longer and spend more during their stays.
The Historic Preservation Revolving Fund won’t transform Maine’s economy, but it can play an important role in sparking local revitalization across the state.
