Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.
During the March 7 program for the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce luncheon, members and guests heard an overview and update on the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation from J.J. Scott, local architect and member of the Florida Trust Board of Trustees, and Florida Trust Development Director Yasmin Khan-Hohensee.
Khan-Hohensee began the presentation with an overview of the work done by the Florida Trust, including cultural heritage tourism and how it is relevant to the Monticello-Jefferson County community.
The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation is a statewide, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation as well as the inclusive sharing of the diverse architectural, historical and archaeological heritage of Florida, said Khan-Hohensee.
“We recognize that historic preservation represents many different areas,” she said. “We want to make sure we are really the voice for historic preservation in the state.”
Khan-Hohensee pointed out that each year the trust identifies 11 properties in the state that are most vulnerable as the focus for their efforts throughout the year, guided by the four pillars of the trust's work: advocacy, connecting, education and stewardship.
Next, Scott stepped to the podium to provide details about cultural heritage tourism.
“Cultural heritage tourism is when you have a cultural resource or a heritage resource,” he said. “It is marketing and capitalizing on that particular aspect. For instance, we have a very large resource that checks both boxes. The Monticello Opera House is a cultural heritage tourism site in that culturally it hosts regular cultural events – plays, concerts, that sort of thing – as well as a heritage site because of its history and the story that it tells about Monticello.”
Scott explained that taking such a cultural or heritage site – like the Opera House or the Jefferson County Courthouse – and making it the pillar of all local tourism marketing is the essence of cultural heritage tourism. If everybody teams up to include something about that site in their logo, in their catch-phrase, it can have a stronger impact overall.
“Our downtown area is a huge asset,” he continued, “an asset that is coveted by many throughout the state of Florida. Because [the state is] relatively new in our nation's history, not a lot of towns, specifically newer towns or developing towns, don't have that historic downtown... A lot of places don't look like us. That is a huge asset that we need to capitalize on here in Monticello. The fact that visitors come and spend billions and billions of dollars on cultural heritage sites throughout the state of Florida is something that we need to capitalize on.”
Scott gave the example of St. Augustine, where so much of the area's signage references the Castillo de San Marcos, extending even into the surrounding towns. Another example, he said, was a warehouse being renovated in Jacksonville using this approach.
“The greenest building is the building you already have,” he said, pointing out the additional environmental value of using existing, historical structures rather than building new.
These developers are updating the interior of the huge warehouse while retaining the story of its former use as a significant rail terminal for the Union railroad. This is a story they can capitalize on in marketing the new venture.
Khan-Hohensee then stepped back to the microphone to give a legislative update related to the Florida Trust's advocacy work.
“I think it's appropriate to mention that work like we are doing with the proposed statewide historic tax credit helps to make cultural heritage tourism more accessible,” she said. “It helps to provide more opportunities for folks to want to visit our communities, to want to invest their tourism dollars in the communities that we live in.”
She explained that the historic tax credit legislation – Florida House Bill 499 and the companion Senate Bill 288 – have been sponsored, co-sponsored and are moving through their respective chambers of the Florida legislature to hopefully become a law. The law, if enacted, would provide a tax credit of up to 20 percent of total eligible costs for rehabilitation of a certified historic structure. In addition, if a certified historic structure is located in the boundaries of a Main Street community or National Register Historic District, up to 30 percent of total eligible costs for rehabilitation would be available. In either case, costs would need to exceed $5,000 to qualify.
“The proposed law provides an incentive that not only supports the intrinsic value of our historic places but also generates some return on investment,” Khan-Hohensee said. “With the example of the Union terminal warehouse, if individuals are attending a Jacksonville Jaguars game, there's more of an incentive to visit downtown Jacksonville with more revitalization in that community.”
She said they have seen further examples from 2021 of communities that benefited from the federal historic tax credit that is already enacted. In addition, throughout the southeast region of the country where a similar statewide tax credit has already implemented, such as in Texas, there have been benefits both in revenue being produced as well as job creation.
Khan-Hohensee then showed a map of downtown Monticello, marked to show both the Main Street area and the National Historic Register district, which overlap but do not have exactly the same boundaries. Certified historic structures in either zone incurring at least $5,000 in eligible rehabilitation costs could qualify for the 30 percent tax credit, if the bill becomes a law. Scott added later that the proposed law aims to drive private development to pursue rehabilitation, rather than demolition, of historic structures. Scott and Khan-Hohensee encouraged everyone to contact their government representatives – Allison Tant or Jason Shoaf in the Florida House and Corey Simon in the Florida Senate – to encourage their support of these bills to preserve the local rural heritage.
Two other legislative efforts summarized by Khan-Hohensee as important to the Florida Trust included the following: 1) grant funding for 33 historic places on the special category grant list through the Division of Historical Resources; and 2) Florida House Bill 49, which would create a historic cemeteries program within Florida's Division of Historical Resources, supporting the identification, location and maintenance of historic cemeteries, with specific attention to African-American cemeteries in the state.
For more information about the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, visit www.floridatrust.org. The site provides updates on legislative advocacy, includes detailed information on preservation grants, shows the lists of Florida's 11 to Save and lets you suggest a site you think should be on the 2024 list.
The next meeting of the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce will be at noon on Tuesday, April 11, at First United Methodist Church Family Ministry Center (395 W. Palmer Mill Rd.) in Monticello. The scheduled speaker is Bobby Hutchinson, regional sales executive with Conexon Connect, the firm partnering with Tri-County Electric Cooperative to bring fiber-based, high-speed internet access to homes in rural Jefferson County. Please RSVP by calling (850) 997-5552 or emailing info@monticellojeffersonfl.com.
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