Panel advances bill to create tax credit for converting underused buildings

The House Housing Committee voted to send House File 457 to the tax committee after testimony supporting a new tax credit and grant program intended to help convert vacant or underutilized buildings into housing, commercial space or other productive uses.

Representative Jennifer Harder, the bill author, told the committee the proposal would establish a temporary, targeted program to catalyze conversions such as schools to senior housing, churches to daycare centers, and low-rise offices to mixed-use housing. The bill proposes a tax credit equal to 30% of qualified conversion costs and would require conversion work to be completed within three years of application, Harder said.

Erin Hanifenberg, deputy director and director of policy, education and outreach at ReSos, described the proposal as modeled in part on Minnesota’s historic structure rehabilitation credit and said the state’s existing historic credit has…