A Quarter of the Rehabilitation Cost May Come Back
This is the fact that changes the answer on a great many St. Louis fire files, and most owners have never had it explained to them.
Missouri's Historic Preservation Tax Credit, in place since 1997, provides a state tax credit equal to 25 percent of qualified rehabilitation expenditures on a certified historic structure in St. Louis and Kansas City. The federal programme adds a 20 percent credit on income-producing certified historic structures, and where both apply the combined figure reaches 45 percent.
The full position is on our page covering historic credits, brick and condemnation. The state credit is the important half for a homeowner, because it covers owner-occupied houses as well as income-producing property. The federal credit does not; private residences are excluded from it.
Does My Building Qualify as Historic?
The credits are also more flexible than most. They can be carried back 3 years or forward 10, and Missouri allows them to be sold or transferred, which means an owner without the tax liability to absorb them can still realise their value.
And One Mistake Forfeits It
Here is the part that catches fire owners specifically, because it runs against every instinct after a fire.
Applicants to the federal and state programmes are advised to wait for signed approval of the proposed scope of work before undertaking any demolition or construction. Rehabilitation work must conform to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, and the approval process exists to establish that in advance.
After a fire the instinct is to clear, tidy and start putting things right. Doing that before the scope is approved can put the credits out of reach on precisely the building where they would have been worth the most.
What Should I Do First If the Building Might Be Historic?
The full position is on our page covering historic credits, brick and condemnation.
Your Brick Is the Most Valuable Thing on the Site
The second St. Louis fact is physical, and it is the reason securing the building matters more here than anywhere else we work.
After the fire of 1849 the city required new buildings to be built of brick, and the red clay beds beneath it supplied them; brickyards here were producing more than 20 million bricks a year as early as 1839. St. Louis brick became known nationally for its colour and quality, and it still carries a strong resale market.
The full position is on our page covering historic credits, brick and condemnation. Which is why vacant brick buildings here get stripped. City building inspectors have described the pattern directly: a building is set alight, the fire department's hoses knock the mortar off and bring walls down, and the clean brick is collected afterwards. Others simply ram walls with a vehicle. Buildings left with their walls peeled away are known locally as dollhouses.
Why Does That Affect What My Property Is Worth?
Anyone selling brick to a dealer is expected to produce a city-issued demolition permit showing a legitimate source. That is the deterrent, and its effectiveness varies. What does not vary is that an unsecured fire-damaged brick building is at risk in a way an unsecured frame building is not.
What a Fire-Damaged St. Louis Building Is Actually Worth
The Terms That Move the Number Here
Whether the masonry shell survived. The largest single figure on most files. A sound shell removes the demolition and carries the structure.
Whether the building is certified historic. A 25 percent state credit, and 45 percent where the federal applies, changes what a rehabilitation costs in a way nothing else does.
Whether anyone has started work. Clearing before scope approval can forfeit the credits on an eligible building.
Whether it is secured. An open brick building in the wrong neighbourhood can lose its walls, and with them the shell and the eligibility.
City or county. The City of St. Louis is independent of St. Louis County, and the county contains a great many separate municipalities.
Anyone quoting without asking whether the building is historic has priced the harder version of the project.
The City Is Not in the County
Worth stating plainly because it confuses people from everywhere else. The City of St. Louis is an independent city and is not part of St. Louis County. They are entirely separate jurisdictions with separate governments, separate records and separate building departments.
The county in turn contains a large number of individual municipalities, many with their own building departments and their own ordinances. So establishing which authority covers your address is a real step here rather than a formality, and a postal address is not a reliable guide.
How the Timeline Runs
An open claim does not prevent a sale — proceeds and property are separable and who keeps the claim is negotiable. What lengthens a St. Louis timeline is the combination this market produces: a historic question nobody asked, a building nobody secured, and title.
Where a fire causes significant structural damage the City's Building Division can move quickly, including through emergency condemnation, so a stalled decision is not always a neutral one.
If you are weighing several offers, how to tell local cash buyers apart covers the checks that separate them.
Questions Owners Ask
Nobody Mentioned Historic Credits to Me.
Common, and worth checking yourself. The state credit covers owner-occupied houses as well as income-producing property, and a building contributing to a historic district qualifies without being individually listed.
I Have Already Cleared Some Debris.
Establish the position rather than assuming the worst. The guidance is to wait for scope approval before demolition or construction, and how far you have gone is a question for the preservation office rather than for us.
Should I Board It Up?
On a brick building in a neighbourhood where theft occurs, yes, and quickly. The shell is the most valuable thing you own and an open building invites its removal.
Can I Sell With an Open Claim?
Yes. Who keeps the proceeds is a negotiated term rather than a legal barrier. Tell any buyer at the outset; one who suggests concealing it from your carrier is telling you something useful.
Sources
- Missouri State Historic Preservation Office — historic preservation tax credit programmes
- Missouri Department of Economic Development — Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program
- City of St. Louis Cultural Resources Office — historic preservation tax credit guidance
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch and St. Louis Magazine reporting — brick theft from vacant buildings
- City of St. Louis Building Division — emergency condemnation provisions