The 85-year-old National Theater in Richmond will reopen as a concert hall next month after being closed for 25 years. But one of its owners says restoration of the theater would not have happened if the state didn’t offer historic rehabilitation tax credits. “Without tax credits, it still would be vacant and cold,” said A. William Reid of RIC Capital Ventures.
The building was still a bit chilly last night when the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and APVA Virginia Preservation held a reception celebrating the results of 10 years of tax credits. The event drew more than 400 people including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Speaker of the House William J. Howell and House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong.
Also on hand was Michael Pratt, director of the VCU Center for Public Policy, which conducted a study of the effects of state tax credits. He offered a few highlights from the survey.
• 93 percent of respondents said the state tax credits were essential to their decision to rehab historic property.
• 65.5 percent said they would not have undertaken their projects without the tax credits.
• Since the tax credits went into effect in 1997, they have resulted in an economic impact of $1.6 billion in the past 10 years, creating 10,769 jobs and generating $46 million in state tax revenue.
In the case of the National Theater, tax incentives encouraged Reid’s group to buy the building for $1.6 million in 2006 from the Historic Richmond Foundation and spend $15 million restoring it to its original appearance.
The theater opened in 1923 as a venue for vaudeville acts and later served as a music hall and movie theater. It closed in 1983 and was scheduled to be demolished when the Historic Richmond Foundation bought it in 1984.
“Orson Wells appeared on this stage,” Reid said. “In a few months, Willie Nelson will do the same.”