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Committee lays over bill to give 30% tax credit for converting vacant buildings to housing; amendment on affordability fails
Summary
House File 457, a proposed tax credit to subsidize conversion of underused commercial buildings into housing, was amended to allow insurers to claim the credit and was laid over. An amendment that would have imposed affordability requirements failed in committee.
The House Tax Committee laid over House File 457, a proposal to create a temporary state tax credit to help convert vacant or underused commercial buildings to housing and other income‑producing uses.
Representative Harter, the bill’s sponsor, described the proposal as “a new tax credit and grant program for expenses incurred in converting buildings from one use to another” and said it was intended to boost housing supply and downtown vitality amid high office vacancy rates.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter testified in support, citing a local study and a downtown vacancy rate “just above 30%” for competitive office space. “The adaptive reuse of vacant office buildings to housing will create jobs, increase housing supply, increase the value of those downtown buildings and the downtown tax base and increase our population downtown,” Mayor Carter told the committee.
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