Maryland State Historic Tax Credit Projects

Maryland has a competitive state historic tax credit application program, now known as the Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit. Rehabilitation projects are selected based on merit and adherence to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and awarded tax credits until the maximum investment from the state of $9 million dollar is met.

The six projects selected by the Maryland Historical Trust for 2016 are as follows:

Hoen Lithograph Building

Baltimore City

This historic industrial building at 2101 East Biddle Street in Baltimore City was constructed in 1898 for the Bagby Furniture Company. Its longest and most well-known occupant, however, was the Hoen & Co., one of the largest and oldest lithograph printing companies in the world. The company printed some of the first National Geographic maps. Hoen & Co. used the building from 1902 until its closure in 1981, and the site has been vacant since.

Under the partnership of Cross Street Partners and City Life Builders, the historic structure will be restored and reused for non-profit office space, market-rate housing targeting health care workers, and a food production kitchen complete with a rooftop farm and café. Ziger/Snead Architects, a Baltimore-based firm, is the architect. The state will invest $3 million in historic tax credit towards the $18 million dollar project. The developers aim to have the building occupant-ready in 2017.

Footer’s Dye Works

City of Cumberland, Alleghany County

Historic tax credit project at Footer Dye Works, Cumberland, MD

Historic tax credit project, Footer Dye Works, Cumberland, MD

The last remaining building in the Footer’s Dye Works complex in Cumberland in the Canal Place Heritage Area, is the building that housed the administrative offices, and cloth finishing and pressing services. The building was constructed in 1906 when Cumberland was a thriving industrial town and operated through the 1920s employing up to 500 people. The company closed in 1936 and the complex was sold by 1949.

Joy Development owns the National Register-listed property and the Cumberland-based firm JLD Construction is the contractor. Current plans are set at $9 million dollars with a $1.875 million investment from the state historic tax credit, and call for a brewpub, office spaces, and 16 apartments. The roof restoration is nearly finished, and reconstruction is underway of a portion of the building with a saw tooth roof design. Joy Development aims to finish the majority of the project by December 2016.

Academy School

Cambridge, Heart of the Chesapeake Heritage Area, Dorchester County

With the assistance of $287,500 dollar in state historic tax credits, developers plan to restore the ca. 1906 two and a half story building’s exterior and repurpose the interior classroom, library, and office spaces for senior living apartments. The prominent Cambridge architect J. Benjamin Brown, who also designed the Hearn Hardware Building, patterned the Academy School on his earlier design of Hurlock High School.

Sykesville Hotel

Sykesville, Carroll County

Constructed in 1905, this historic hotel and restaurant operated until the 1920s when it was converted into apartments. The developer plans to restore the exterior of the building, including the restoration of the siding and reopening of historic windows and doors, as well as the reconstruction of the building’s missing porches. The Maryland Heritage Structure Rehabilitation tax credit will invest $58,000 in this project.

Hearn Building

Cambridge, Heart of the ChesapeakeState Heritage Area, Dorchester County

The Hearn Building, is a large early-20th century commercial building along the Race Street in Cambridge and was constructed around 1914 for the United Stores Company by J. Benjamin Brown, one of Cambridge’s most prominent architects, designed a three-story, four-bay by twelve-bay stretcher and common bond brick commercial structure featuring decorative pressed metal cornices. It has since been known as the Hearn Building due to The Hearn Hardware Company being a long-term occupant until 1975, when it sold to a furniture company.

Due to neglected maintenance, most of the building’s left side collapsed onto Race Street and damaged an adjacent structure in October 2015. This emergency spurred renewed actions to stabilization the structure including an emergency grant from Preservation Maryland, and a commitment from the City and County officials to seek a new buyer.

The Maryland Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit will invest over $950,000 into the redevelopment project. The team of SA&A Development and Hybrid Development Group purchased the building to restore and repurpose it for rental residential apartments and retail space.

St. Michael’s Church Complex

Baltimore City

Once a thriving educational and religious center for Baltimore’s German population, the St. Michael’s Church complex that was constructed between 1850 and 1914 closed in July 2011. The 17,000-square foot Romanesque Revival Church building showcases large stained glass windows, marble statues and paintings of the apostles by Filippo Costaggini, painter of the frieze in the U.S. Capitol.

Finding new used, for the past couple decades, St. Michael’s had English- and Spanish-speaking congregations and was an important cultural center in the Fells Point Latino community. The complex will be restored with $2,861,111.60 in historic tax credits by developer Mark Manzo for mixed use commercial occupancy and rental residential apartments. Encompassing 70,000 square feet, the complex provides significant developable space.