Preservation
Articles
“The Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation,”
America’s Byways Resource Center;
Vistas, Winter 2002
Historic: The Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation
A new report from Florida has important implications for byways investing time and money to enhance, protect and promote their historic intrinsic qualities.
Historic preservation helps bring an additional $4.2 billion a year to the Florida economy and more than 120,000 jobs a year to Sunshine State workers, according to a study released in October 2002 by researchers at the University of Florida Levin College of Law Center of Governmental Responsibility (CGR).
Commissioned by the Florida Department of State and conducted by staffs at CGR and the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University, the study is the first of its kind in Florida to research the impact of historical preservation.
“We examined the value of maintaining and renovating historic properties and sites amidst the pressures of new development,” said study authors Timothy McLendon and JoAnn Klein of CGR. They also took into consideration direct and indirect financial impact of activities such as rehabilitation of historic properties, heritage tourism, grants, tax incentives, museum operations and investment in Florida’s Main Street Program.
The one-year study was prepared with input from individuals and officials involved in historic preservation, and government and community leaders from cities, towns and villages in every region of the State.
The study, “provides striking evidence that Florida’s investment and protection of historic places and the legacy of the cultures that created it, are paying huge dividends,” Florida Secretary of State Jim Smith states in the report.
Among key findings:
- Historic preservation creates jobs. More than 123,000 were generated in the State from historic preservation activities during 2000, representing $2.7 billion in income to Floridians. “The economist we worked with at Rutgers did some comparisons showing historic preservation is more efficient at bringing jobs to local communities than new construction would be,” McLendon said.
- Historic preservation contributes to State and local taxes. Spending on historic preservation activities generated more than $657 million in State and local taxes.
- Heritage tourism generates billions of dollars in local spending. More than $3.7 billion was spent in Florida by tourists who visited historic sites, including archaeological sites, historic museums, State parks and locations designated in the National Register of Historic Places.
- The Main Street Program creates a greater sense of place in Florida communities. Since 1985, eighty Florida communities have leveraged a State investment of $4 million into a total public/private investment of $486.5 million to improve their downtowns.
- Historic preservation maintains property values. An examination of assessed values of residential properties in historic and non-historic districts in multiple Florida cities showed there was no case where historic preservation depressed property values.
Researchers found that in areas where historic homes are restored, property values are stable and, in many cases, appreciate in value much more quickly than comparable non-historic areas.
“If you just give a little eye to detail, to historic preservation, you’ll get more money for it,” said John Jones, a Tampa real estate consultant quoted in the study.
“Historic preservation produces a wonderful return for the public money invested and is one of the most efficient ways public funds can be invested,” McLendon said. “Historic preservation works. Florida has done a good job and has much to commend itself for. The program is very successful.
To learn more about historic preservation and economic impacts, check out Cultural Heritage Tourism at www.culturalheritagetourism.org.
A 35-page Executive Summary of the study can be found at:
http://www.law.ufl.edu/cgr/pdf/historic_report.pdf
