The Ohio Department of Development announced the receipt of 50 applications from 14 cities in round four of the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit program. Applicants collectively requested more than $80 million in tax credits, with individual requests ranging from $8,000 to the program cap of $5 million. The tax credits are part of Ohio's job stimulus plan, which calls for a $120 million set-aside for historic tax credits (HTCs). In round four, the program's final round, applicants are competing for the remaining $24.4 million. The Ohio Department of Development, in partnership with the Ohio Historical Society and the Ohio Department of Taxation, will review all eligible applications and announce approved round four applications by June 30.

On May 6, BRIDGE Housing Corporation celebrated the groundbreaking of St. Joseph's Senior Apartments, a senior affordable housing development in Oakland, Calif. The project received nearly $6 million in historic tax credit (HTC) equity. St. Joseph's Senior Apartments is located within the main building of the former St. Joseph's Home for the Aged, a historic landmark that was placed in service in the early 20th century. Six heritage palm trees will be preserved and incorporated in the landscape plan. The apartments will be reserved for seniors age 62 or older with incomes at 30 percent to 50 percent of the area median income, with monthly rents ranging from $439 to $803. Union Bank provided the HTC equity. Other sources of funding include city of Oakland, US Bank, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, the Oakland Housing Authority, the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the Federal Home Loan Bank of California.

A former school building in downtown Sharon, Mass. was converted into 75 mixed-income housing units with more than $15 million in equity financing from federal and state HTCs and low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), according to the Massachusetts Housing Partnership. Other major financing included $14 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by MassDevelopment. The $29 million project to redevelop the former Wilber School was completed in early May. The developers, Beacon Communities and Frontier Enterprises Inc., restored the exterior Colonial Revival architecture and preserved the original lockers, blackboards, classroom doors and corridors. Of the 75 one- and two-bedroom units, 15 are available for households earning up to 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), while seven are reserved for households with incomes at or below 100 percent of the AMI. The remaining 53 units are market-rate.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation submitted testimony in April to the House Ways and Means Committee on the importance of historic preservation to the green economy. The Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on April 14 on energy tax incentives driving the green job economy. In its testimony, the National Trust for Historic Preservation emphasized the benefits of an energy efficiency retrofit amendment included as part of H.R. 3715/S. 1743, the Community Restoration and Revitalization Act. The amendment to section 8 of the bill would provide a boost in the existing federal HTC of an additional $2 to $5 per square foot depending on a range of energy savings, beginning at 30 percent and graduating to as much as 50 percent. Section 10 of the bill provides for the twinning of the HTC with the renewable energy tax credit, similar to the way federal HTCs are allowed to be used in combination with low-income housing tax credits. H.R. 3715, introduced in October of 2009, currently has 73 co-sponsors.

The not-for-profit Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA) was awarded historic tax credits (HTCs) for the $27 million rehabilitation of the Victory Theatre in Holyoke, Mass., The Republican reported. Victory Theatre premiered in 1919 and closed its doors in 1979. MIFA told The Republican that along with the HTC award, it also expects to receive new markets tax credits for the theatre, which is scheduled to reopen in December 2012.