Downtown Tucsonan - July/August 2008 - (Page 13) Vital Signs J o n at h a n M a b r y, H i s t o r i c P r e s e r va t i o n O f f i c e r by Lee Allen t’s appropriate that Jonathan Mabry, the city of tucson’s Historic Preservation officer, maintains offices in the historic 101-year-old Macarthur Hotel across the street from the restored historic train depot. Mabry is part of the city’s urban Planning and design department, which offices there until a private-sector owner takes over Macarthur, but his presence seems to underscore his commitment to preservation and adaptive re-use. “Main street is not tucson’s main street,” he says. “congress street has always been our main artery leading to a downtown with a unique historic character and a lot of historically significant buildings. It’s my job to make sure our community kick-starts downtown revitalization by investing in and fixing up historic buildings along our main thoroughfare.” the trained anthropologist (B.a. cum laude, M.a., Phd), on-the-job as head of the preservation patrol for just a few months, is optimistic we’re on the right path. “a large portion of downtown buildings, in some sections a majority of the buildings, are historic and significant as reflected by their national Register of Historic Places designation. these are assets for downtown. not old, out-of-date structures, but positives we can base revitalization efforts on. this is the approach many communities have taken, fixing up historic buildings as a crucial first step,” he says, citing Prescott’s main square restoration as one example. “they’ve restored and adaptively re-used their older buildings and it’s an enjoyable, walkable downtown with a lot of historical character. the square is now a destination people choose to visit, and downtown tucson could do the same thing.” citing available grant monies from both federal and state coffers to help in historical restoration, Mabry says green retrofitting of halfcentury-old structures is the apparent trend. “It’s great that there is a lot of media buzz about green building, but the focus has been on new construction. In the preservationist community, we’re trying to increase recognition that the ultimate in recycling is greening a building that already exists. If you demolish the old and build anew, you’ve got a nice new green facility, but any honest calculation of the energy footprint has to include demolition cost and energy cost to ship new materials to the site. the greenest strategy we can have is recycling historic structures, many of which were better constructed than contemporary projects.” as just one example, Mabry cites bond funding available to restore the historic façade of the county-owned walgreens building which goes up for sale soon. “It’s a well-designed 1929 building that could be brought back to its earlier glory,” he says. In addition to federal and state tax credits, the new city of tucson/downtown tucson Partnership façade program is providing financial incentive for downtown property owners to invest in their historic buildings. “downtown tucson buildings have such unique historic character, some of which is hidden behind façades added in the 1950s and ‘60s. Part of my job is to get the word out about the variety of incentives available for performing restoration, adaptive re-use that meets historic preservation standards, and the façade program is going to be an important part of that. I hope we spend all the money in the façade grant program quickly so we’ll have a great case to go back to Mayor and council to fund another cycle of those grants.” tax credits are available on income-producing historic buildings (20% off income taxes) and the state has a program where improvements made to historic buildings are assessed at one percent of their full value for a ten-year period, plus accelerated depreciation. “when you combine these types of financial tools with things like the façade program, a lot of projects that haven’t been penciled out until now start to make a lot of business i Jonathan Mabry sense. It’s an opportunity based on sound economics to use all the tools available to make reinvestment in our downtown buildings,” he says. In his relatively-short tenure, Mabry is proud of obtaining a grant for national Register nominations for two neighborhoods Barrio santa Rosa, south of Barrio Viejo, and the Jefferson Park neighborhood. once a neighborhood becomes a national Register Historic district, there are significant tax breaks to homeowners who contribute to the district if their properties haven’t been significantly altered and are still historic in character. “If you own a contributing property, you can get 40-50 percent off your property taxes. Participation is voluntary and no government officials will tell you what you can and cannot do with your house as long as modifications meet the standards of historic preservation,” he says. “If property owners are smart and take advantage of the grants and tax credits available, as we take each step toward revitalization, property values are going to soar downtown and now is the time to invest in those properties.” In Mabry’s opinion, all steps are leading toward the 2012 centennial. “I agree with the city Manager that 2011 is going to be the year that downtown is utterly transformed I-10 construction will be completed; the modern streetcar will be up and running through a rebuilt Fourth avenue underpass; tucson origins Heritage Park and its adjacent museum campus will be built out and open to visitors, and that will be a major destination that will completely transform the western end of downtown. all of these projects will be up and running by 2011 and we’re going to be greeting the arizona centennial unlike any other community in the state.” july/august.08. downtown tucsonan 13
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