Former warehouse impetus for Bristol's newest historic district

Bristol, Va.

Historic Districts                Acres Structures

Downtown Bristol                19.5        50
Euclid Avenue                      150         422
Solar Hill                              33.5        122
Virginia Hills                         38           124
Proposed                             36            33

BRISTOL, Va. – Cold and dark as a January night, the nearly vacant, red brick warehouse at 220 Lee St., is now the impetus for efforts to establish the city’s newest historic district.

Occupying a 1.5-acre lot at the corner of Lee and Scott streets – just as it has for decades – the two-story, 36,000-square-foot structure was once considered ripe for demolition. Formerly the bustling home of Bristol Builder’s Supply and Central Warehouse Corp., once it fell silent some suggested it be torn down to make way for a gleaming new library or perhaps some commercial enterprise.

But now its massive timber columns and solid construction are as cherished as a family photo album, for everyone extolling the virtues of adaptive reuse and the financial advantages of historic tax credits.

A gift from the city to its school division in mid-2010, the building’s future centers on a vision of brightly refurbished, modern office space for school administrators replete with offices, desks, cubicles and computers. Most of the transformational money is expected to come from a $3 million interest-free federal loan program.

Because of the age and largely original condition of the building, the project could also benefit from state and federal historic tax credits -- if it qualifies. With a 25 percent tax credit available from Virginia and 20 percent on the federal side, tax credits for the projected $3.5 million renovation could generate more than $1 million, once completed.

School leaders asked the city to pursue the historic district designation, rather than seek historic status for the lone building, and that process is under way.

“They [school division] feel it is necessary to have that building included in the historic district to maximize the potential of receiving historic tax credits,” said City Manager Dewey Cashwell. “There has been some discussion whether that is truly necessary but -- our view is -- if it makes the school system feel better about the process and helps them with moving forward, then OK.”

The structure likely wouldn’t qualify by itself but could if included in the historic district, according to Mike Pulice, acting director of the state’s western region preservation office.

“I don’t believe that it is eligible,” Pulice said. “It’s nondescript. It’s old enough, but it’s not a rare type of building with rare craftsmanship. I don’t believe it has enough going for it, on its own. Those standards are relaxed somewhat if it is part of a collection of buildings. In a historic district, it could qualify as contributing.”

Preliminary plan

The city is proposing a u-shaped 36-acre area, contiguous to existing historic districts downtown and the mostly residential Solar Hill area. The proposed district includes the Bristol train station -- which is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places --- city courthouse, jail and fire station, Cumberland Square Park, the Central Warehouse and Bristol Fire Museum, plus buildings along a three-block stretch of Piedmont Avenue, including the Kerr-Boswell building and Bristol Public Library.

There are no private homes in the proposed area, but it does include two loft apartments.

It also includes the Southeast Culinary and Hospitality College, housed in a former post office that is also listed on the national register. Structures like the library, bank, park and city buildings almost certainly won’t be certified as contributing to the historic quality.

“The goal is to omit as many non-contributing buildings as you can and include as many contributing buildings as you can, to develop the boundary,” Pulice said. “A certain number of non-contributing buildings within the boundary will not be a detriment, but they must be in the minority. There are strict guidelines on how you draw the boundary.”

The city is currently accepting proposals from planning and consulting firms to prepare an application to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Two firms have submitted proposals and a third is expected soon, according to Andrew Trivette, the city’s director of community development and planning.

“I think the district makes sense because of the benefit and there’s really not a negative -- outside of the cost of having the study done -- which is very minimal. The advantage of being able to use tax credits anywhere in the historic district, to help with reconstruction or rehab, is tremendous,” Trivette said.

Getting qualified

Buildings qualify for historic tax credits in two ways, according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. To become a nationally certified historic structure, a building must be listed on the National Register of Historic Places or certified as contributing to a district listed on the national register. The first step is being listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register, being certified as eligible or certified as contributing. In nearly all cases, properties listed on one are also included on the other, according to information from the state.

“The process is to prepare and submit an application that we will review in house and then send our recommendation to the state review board, which will consider it at a quarterly meeting,” Pulice said. “Once the application is approved, the city will probably hire a consultant to survey each building in the proposed new area and submit a national register nomination.”

The same state review board will then consider the nomination. Structures are only considered for the national register after they’re approved at the state level.

Qualifying for the tax credits means following a strict set of construction standards designed to restore and retain a structure’s original appearance.

If the warehouse qualifies, for example, the large, painted Central Warehouse Corp. signs on three sides of the building must be retained, architect Bill Huber said.

Expenses covered by the tax credits include virtually all structural work, heating, plumbing, electrical, disability compliance and fire suppression systems. In addition, architectural and engineering fees, management costs and other construction expenses can be included. Site work and some landscaping are covered under the state program but not under federal guidelines.

Credits can’t be claimed, however, until the district is listed and all work is completed.

Building plans

Weighing all those factors, potential tax credit savings aren’t built into the division’s $3.5 million building renovation budget, Superintendent Mark Lineburg said. School officials are, however, optimistic the project will eventually qualify.

“It [qualifying] sounds like a good process, so maybe it can be completed by fall. We’ll build our budget without tax credits and have some option add-ins to design the maintenance area. I’m anticipating that would be the biggest option add-in,” Lineburg said. “It would be nice to have some extra tax credit money at the end because you never know where it ends up. You could either have options that finish parts of the building or put it back into other facility needs we have.”

School officials plan only to renovate the portions of the warehouse they plan to use, to help contain costs.

“We are not going to renovate 100 percent of this building. We’re going to renovate to the school system’s needs and that will leave probably 6,500 square feet left over. The rest would just be roughed in. I think it will end up the top floor will be 100 percent renovated and the bottom floor will be a partial renovation,” Lineburg said.

Meeting a need

Once renovated, the warehouse building is expected to resolve what has long been one of the school division’s most vexing problems – providing a central administrative office that is accessible to those with disabilities and has enough space for employees, services and records.

“Our current building is in such bad shape,” Lineburg said. “Once we get into the warehouse building, that will be such a big improvement. We’re really excited about this opportunity.”

More than 30 administrative employees work in a former Oak Street elementary school that is more than 100 years old, not compliant with federal accessibility standards, would cost a prohibitive amount of money to renovate and lacks sufficient space and parking. School Board meetings used to be held there but are now held in the Virginia High School library.

The School Board is expected to approve design plans for the building at its Feb. 7 meeting, Lineburg said. Once the funding is approved, the project can then be put out for bid. The architect’s preliminary schedule anticipates work beginning in late June or early July and being substantially completed by April or May 2012.

No restrictions

“Most people assume when you do a historic district, it comes with some type of restriction, but that’s not the case here. All the city is looking to do is create an expanded area of the downtown commercial historic district that would allow any building in that expanded area to take advantage of the tax credit process,” Trivette said.

During the past decade, the city established four designated historic districts, including the commercial area downtown and three mostly residential districts – Solar Hill, Virginia Hills and Euclid Avenue.

“We recognize that folks have limited resources and putting them under pressure can result in the mistake some communities have made, where they restricted folks to the point that buildings sit idle and abandoned for a long, long time because of the rules,” Cashwell said. “There are more stringent approaches to this like you’d see in Alexandria or Charlottesville or Abingdon, where you can’t touch a brick without going through a review process. That is just not the case here at all.”

Trivette said there is no long-range intent to implement such restrictive zoning, because it could stifle development.

“I don’t think there is that sentiment – even among proponents of preservation and historic regulation. They don’t desire the type of regulation that Abingdon has. Anytime you’re talking about historic zoning, you can go all the way to regulating brick color and window size, but that’s not the intent of people in Bristol,” Trivette said. “If we were going to do regulation, preservation would be the goal -- making sure the buildings that have historical value remain in place.”

Believe in Bristol, the downtown marketing organization, does support adding a layer of protection to preserve the downtown commercial area’s historic appearance, Executive Director Christina Blevins said.

“We are for historic preservation, but we’ve gone about in a different way than say, Jonesborough, Tenn., which is very restrictive. We want people to feel empowered to do things with their buildings,” Blevins said. “People get scared when they see preservation zoning. We would propose minimal zoning, just so someone can’t come in and do something to hurt the appearance of the whole downtown.”

dmcgee@bristolnews.com
(276) 645-2532