COVER FEATURE

photos courtesy Douglas Moss

TAYLOR REVITALIZATIONIS PAYING OFF

In suburban America, the renaissance of historical town centers incorporates each city’s vision and mission to marry the old with the new in a constant effort toward positive growth.

Taylor, a city built and thriving on agriculture is on the cusp of becoming a world technology center, but architect Douglas Moss is driven to bridge the two. He and Darwin Harrison, his partner at Public Sketch, LLC, have a vision to rehabilitate and repurpose historic downtown buildings and develop new projects while maintaining the smalltown character of their hometown.

The goal is as personal as it is profitable. Moss grew up in Taylor and his family still lives there. His brother owns the True Value hardware store that has been in the family for 55 years, and he literally knows the streets, having ridden his bike on all of them as a young person. In the aggregate, these experiences have provided him many and unique perspectives on the history of the city.

WHERE TAYLOR HAS BEEN

While Taylor has not experienced explosive growth on the same timeline as cities closer to IH-35, it is a Nationally Accredited Main Street City. Public Sketch plays a part in the Main Street mission to build stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. With greater access provided by the SH-130 Toll Road, and even with help from the historic tax credit program, there remain many buildings awaiting restoration and vibrant new tenants.

Moss and Harrison are planning cumulative changes that will bring back the vintage feel to the city. “We are focusing on pieces of the overall picture,” Moss says. “We are not like a developer who buys 100 acres and builds something massive. These small projects will have a huge and positive impact because they are incremental and, we like to say, we develop with the public in mind.”

2nd & Main Loft

WHERE IS TAYLOR NOW?

Moss says he always had in interest in being a small-scale real estate developer and four years ago Harrison told him about the building at 2nd & Main in downtown Taylor, which had been for sale for many years and in some areas was nearing collapse. “The prior owner was not able to maintain a large building by herself,” he says. “By using the Historic Rehabilitation Tax credits offered by the Texas Historic Commission and National Park Service, we turned this nearly derelict structure into a vibrant new building that houses Frills and Western Darlin, two unique clothing and gift stores and nine live-and-work lofts.”

For 2nd & Main and others, he is investing his own money but adds that investors and banks did not support his ideas at first. “My plans to restore downtown buildings did not seem sustainable because banks didn’t believe anyone would want to live upstairs from a commercial operation in downtown Taylor, or near an overpass or train track or have no parking.” But Moss, whose day job as the managing partner of the Austin office for the international architecture firm of Steinberg Hart, works on large-scale municipal, university, and mixed-use residential projects, scaled those architectural insights to see the building bared to the bones, and had the vision to restore it from the pipes and electrical to the roof and façades. The result is a destination retail tenant and unique loft spaces all rented within six months of completion.

View from 2nd & Main loft Right: Exterior of the block Ground floor, 2nd & Main Frills Shop Exterior scene at the overpass; one of the ‘gateways’ to downtown

Public Sketch is just one developer success in the story of moving Taylor forward in a holistic approach to honoring the past. The nearby McCrory Timmerman and adjacent Titsworth Furniture buildings were famously renovated in 2014. Artist and designer Judy Blundell and partner Mark Nibbelink rebuilt them from the inside out, added an Italian restaurant, coffee shop, 30 businesses and four residential lofts.

Two blocks away, another local real estate developer purchased the old Taylor High School, built in the 1920s, and converted it to a multi-use property, including a bar, coffee and sandwich shops, and office space. “My vision, and what those two developers are saying, is that the history is important. While these buildings may need a new use—from a high school to a social space—there’s an enormous opportunity. You don’t always need a new building,” said Moss.

WHERE IS TAYLOR GOING?

Moss expects this downtown residential trend to continue as the median home price in Taylor is $348,000, an 85 percent increase since 2019. As the price of land and homes continues to increase, these city center residences will be more important and more in demand for the growing number of people who want to make Taylor their home.

Currently, Public Sketch is focused on purchasing downtown buildings and land to create more destinations for Taylor and a gateway to the downtown area. Moss says, “Amtrak comes through every day and we want the entrance to our city to be great. The idea is to give people a sense of energy and activity downtown. We want visitors to want to live here and business owners to want to open or relocate here. Seeing people biking, walking, eating, and shopping creates a human scale to the city blocks and is part of the cycle of growth.” 

DOWNTOWN RENEWAL

WHAT’S NEXT?

In March 2021, Moss purchased the historic Presbyterian Church (1912) and fellowship hall (1952) on 6th street, and the connecting empty lot at 7th & Talbot. The future of this property, which sat unused for more than four years, is a multi-use site with a retreat feel, including an outdoor food & beverage space, a nine-room boutique hotel with a pool, and 17 rental apartments in a courtyard complex. Landscape design will also reflect the city’s history as they plan to preserve many of the older trees on the property. “We have some tenants already, despite just being in the planning phase, and we are looking for more,” Moss says.

What is next for Public Sketch, however, was always the plan. With the arrival of Samsung, the risks are somewhat lower, but everything Moss and Harrison did on their new half-city block and their downtown development was in motion long before the tech deal was made. Moss says, “There is always risk; for instance, we would like the historic church to become a restaurant but there is no restaurant this size in Taylor. Even though there is no construction yet, we purchased land and have been working on the architectural and engineering design. We are fortunate Samsung is happening but we were always going to rehabilitate these buildings for Taylor.”

He believes preserving the old buildings is critical to strengthening the small town feel, even as he builds new structures as part of these projects. He says, “We are working on a small scale for financial gain but, more importantly, it’s the right thing to maintain the character of Taylor. I would rather wait longer to get an ideal tenant who understands this building’s connection to Taylor rather than a corporate chain.”

GETTING IT DONE

Moss says Taylor and other cities can evolve, and benefit most, from having buildings on the National Historic Registry. “Twenty years ago, the entire downtown of Taylor was registered, which means most every building is either a primary or supporting landmark. When you begin the process of rehabilitating these buildings, you can receive tax credits. It’s not about preservation— retaining every 1920s doorknob—it’s about changing the use of the building while making sure the historical character is part of the renewed structure.”

The Texas Historic Commission provides a 25 percent tax credit on construction and the National Park Service provides 20 percent; i.e., a developer who spends $1 million will get $450,000 back in credit, and all landmark buildings are eligible as long as developers meet strict rehabilitation requirements and go through a very deliberate process. Moss adds, “There is nothing else you can do in this world to get 45 percent back on your investment. It’s a remarkable program, and it’s tough, but for that return, it’s worth it.”

Scan the code to contact Public Sketch.

WILCO BUSINESS REVIEW TECHNOLOGY

CRYPTOCURRENCY BASICS

by Ben Lake

By now you’ve surely heard about cryptocurrency, or at least its first and most popular example, Bitcoin. You may have even purchased some yourself out of curiosity or at the urging of a friend. But do you really understand how it works and what you’re buying?

CRYPTO-ORIGINS

Bitcoin was first proposed in late 2007 in a white paper signed with the enigmatic name of Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity of this person or group is still unclear and a conversation unto itself, but it proposed an ingenious method of anonymously trading a digital currency through a decentralized ledger called a blockchain. This ledger is open and accessible to all participants, and therefore immune to illicit manipulation. There is no central bank or government controlling the currency – it is truly without political borders.

Continuing to use Bitcoin as our example, the currency was designed with a finite number of digital coins that can be created—21 million, to be exact. Creating a coin requires a computer to perform immense and complex calculations—a process called “mining”. Mining digital coins can be done by anyone but is most often done by for-profit groups using huge computers and immense amounts of electricity. Once a coin is mined, fractions of it can be sold to others.

But what are you really owning if you purchase cryptocurrency? Like any item, its scarcity contributes to its perceived value. The U.S. dropped the gold standard in 1971, and our dollars now have value because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the government. One could argue that Bitcoin derives part of its value by being backed by a growing portion of the global population.

NEGATIVES

Cryptocurrency is not without inherent challenges. For one, losing access to your digital wallet means the money is effectively gone forever—remember, no central authority exists to help recover it.

An interesting side study would be to figure out how many bitcoins have been permanently lost. With a finite number of bitcoins in existence, the value depends in part on how many can still be traded.

Another challenge is the volatility of cryptocurrency. This attracts investors, but severely limits its practicality as a day-to-day currency for us regular folks.

The larger challenge—some would say feature—is that cryptocurrency has become the currency of choice for illicit activities, namely ransomware. True anonymity allows a hacker to get paid by its victims, or criminal gangs to transfer funds around the world instantly.

Cryptocurrency has also come under fire for consuming resources without any real-world gain. The mining process is estimated to account for 0.5 percent of the world’s electricity usage. The New York Times says this is more than the country of Finland, or seven times what Google’s global operations use. And the gamer in your family will certainly bemoan the limited availability of their favorite graphics card. This is because the chips inside high-end graphics cards are surprisingly far faster at mining than regular computer chips.

BOTTOM LINE

Cryptocurrency is a fascinating topic and I have only touched on the basics in this article. My personal opinion is that digital currency is here to stay but won’t be widely adopted until its volatility settles down. Until that time, it will continue to be the domain of tech geeks, risk-tolerant investors, and criminals.

Fun fact: El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender on September 7, 2021.

BEN LAKE

Ben is the owner of Open Road Network Services, a Georgetown-based business providing honest, reliable, and affordable technology support to individuals and small businesses. He is particularly passionate about educating and empowering his clients to become more comfortable with technology. • 512-942-7623 • OpenRoad.network