The newly reconstructed interior of the New Yorker Club in the old New York Hotel, Salt Lake City.
Restoration versus New Construction Tax Reform Act... An Incentive to Restorationists by Wilson G. Martin
T
he Mclntyre Building in Salt Lake City was one of the first buildings west of the Mississippi to receive certification under the Tax Reform Act of 1976. This legislation provides for special tax incentives for the rehabilitation of commerical and income properties, including the ability of an owner to take five-year amortization of all rehabilitation costs or to choose an accelerated depreciation method on a substantially rehabilitated structure. The tax incentives also include certain penalties related to demolition costs and new construction built on the site of the demolished historic structure. These penalties and benefits were intended as special tax incentives to ensure the protection of our cultural heritage. However, there are other benefits in addition to the preserving of historic resources. Revitalization of buildings employs 109 people per million dollars expended, versus 69 per million expended for new construction (Source: Local Public Works, Round I).
Rehabilitation is also more energy
Old buildings can be tax shelters. The Mclntyre Building, 68 South Main, Salt Lake City, was built in 1909 by Richard Kletting, a noted Utah architect. The developers responsible for rehabilitation are Miller & Noble Co. (Photographer:
Robert D. Welch)
efficient than new construction in that less new material is used in rehabilitation, and this helps reduce our dependency on foreign oil imports. The preservation and rehabilitation of these older structures is often less costly than new
Rehabilitation helps conserve precious resources... increases employment and commerce. construction, with most of the rehabilitiation in Utah running 60 percent of new construction costs. These projects often come under the $20 per square foot rate, including both purchase and rehabilitation. With these incentives, historic preservation and rehabilitation has become a major economic stimulus to the country and a tax shelter for developers. The addition of the new 1978 Revenue Act, which provides a 10 percent investment tax credit on top of the 1976 benefits, has further increased developers' interest throughout the state of Utah. The Mclntyre Building, at 68 South Main, Salt Lake City, developed by Miller and Noble, Inc., has been certified for these benefits. However, due to the fact that each floor was developed and sold as separate office condominiums, each floor had to be individually certified. So far the third and eighth floors have been certified, and the fifth floor is pending certification. The building was rehabilitated at a cost per square foot of $12 to $18, with 45,000 square feet on each floor. Each floor was modified to
