Tools

Twenty years ago, downtown El Dorado looked like a boomtown gone bust. Development along the thoroughfare at the edge of the city had hushed activity downtown, turned historic buildings into dilapidated ones, and spiraled leaders into despair. At the recommendation of consultants, the square was turned into a pedestrian-only area. Without incentives to encourage an influx of new businesses, though, the plan ended up choking the remaining shops off from customers, according to Richard Mason, a longtime resident. “You could have shot a cannon down the street and not hit anybody.”

Leaders knew the development on El Dorado’s outskirts wasn’t the path to long-term community viability. “In the 21st-century economy, it is quality of place that sets you apart,” said Cary Tyson, director of Main Street Arkansas, the entity the city and property owners later turned to for consulting and training in downtown revitalization. “Workers can live anywhere, but they don’t want to live any place. One of the main things that differentiates a community is the great historic downtowns. Every place has big box stores and chain restaurants, but not every place has that local bakery, live music venue and places with character.”

Through their efforts, El Dorado has transformed its downtown into a well-designed, vibrant community. Two years ago, it won the Great American Main Street award, the Oscar of downtown revitalization. And the city is reaping the benefits. Mason now owns 17 downtown buildings that are at full capacity, filled with more than 30 retailers. More than 1,000 trees line the streets, along with twinkling lights and even Old English phone booths. The shops are all locally owned, the folks friendly. “We had a lady come over from Shreveport to do her Christmas shopping this year. She said, ‘They don’t have anything like this in Shreveport.’ Well Shreveport has all kinds of shopping; the ambiance is what people come here for.”

The Other Green

Though often economically motivated, restoration efforts benefit the environment as well. “The greenest building is the one that’s already built,” Tyson said. Studies show that 48 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions come from the construction, operation and demolition of buildings, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Demolishing a historic building throws away its embodied energy – the total expenditure of energy involved in the creation of the building and its constituent materials, according to Donovan Rypkema, a real estate and economic development professional who has spoken on preservation in Arkansas. And embodied energy is significant. “In Australia, they’ve calculated that the embodied energy in the existing building stock is equivalent to 10 years of the total energy consumption of the entire country,” he said. “Much of the ‘green building’ movement focuses on the annual energy use of a building, but the energy consumed in the construction of a building is 15 to 30 times the annual energy use.”

Not only does preservation retain embodied energy and conserve the energy that would be required in new construction, but it also means that less-energy consumptive materials – brick, plaster, concrete and timber – render unnecessary modern day materials that are more energy consumptive, like plastic, steel, vinyl and aluminum, Rypkema said. Additionally, it keeps the historic building’s materials out of the landfill. As an added bonus, restoration also means economic sustainability. For example, “repairing and rebuilding historic wood windows would mean that the dollars are spent locally instead of at a distant window manufacturing plant,” he said.

The positive environmental impact lasts longer than the construction phase, since downtown preservation combats urban sprawl. As people begin to work, shop, eat and live in a more concentrated area, commutes shorten and fuel is saved, Tyson said. It addition, buying local tends to be more sustainable.

How to Do It

“Don’t take it all off in one bite; go in pieces,” Tyson said. For example, with a multi-story building, renovate the first floor, rent it and make it profitable, using the funds to renovate the second floor. As business and activity begins to pick up downtown, be selective, Tyson said. “Every mall fills its vacant spots strategically, and a downtown should not be that much different. In El Dorado, Mason chose not to renew the lease for a national retail chain. “We try to get a mix of retail businesses that complement each other,” he said. “There was nothing wrong with the store but it was surrounded by really upscale stores and restaurants.” Also, remember it won’t happen overnight. El Dorado has been in the Main Street Arkansas program for more than two decades. “Our approach is incremental,” Tyson said.

Remember, atmosphere is a major selling point, Tyson said. Besides fostering a vibrant retail environment, El Dorado has worked to improve the aesthetic downtown, touted it through advertising, and planned a series of special events to foster activity. With the local arts council as a partner, a public arts project downtown highlights the city’s oil heritage through a series of oil barrels painted in different ways by different artists. “You have to engage people, and you have to partner,” Tyson said.

Tools You Can Use

A state law passed in 2009 allows Arkansans to claim a portion of their investment in historic properties as a credit on their state income taxes. A $25,000 minimum investment is required, but 25 percent of the approved rehabilitation expenses up to $125,000 for income-producing properties and $25,000 for private residences can be claimed as a tax credit. Administered by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, it expands upon the federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit, which allows for 20 percent of qualifying expenses to be claimed. For more information, contact the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

Some cities have their own groups that help facilitate preservation. In Little Rock, for example, the Main Street Revitalization Task Force has an Existing Structures subcommittee that consists of architects, engineers, lawyers, real estate brokers, city planners and historic preservationists that can provide on-call assistance assessing buildings for potential tenants, buyers and current property owners to help facilitate future development. This expands upon the work of Main Street Arkansas, which provides communities with technical assistance, architectural design, interior design, small business development, volunteer training and management, fundraising, social media training and more.

Historic preservation and downtown revitalization is not a small task, Tyson said. “It takes a strong organization, a vision and leaders,” he said. As with many other efforts in sustainability, though, he predicts interest will increase as gasoline prices rise. “When gas hit $4 a gallon a few years ago, you wouldn’t believe the amount of phone calls we got,” he said.