The Impact of Historic Tax Credit Investment in Illinois

The enabling legislation for both the Illinois Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program (IL-HTC) and the River Edge Historic Tax Credit Program (RE-HTC) establishes the collection of fees from projects that receive state tax credits and mandates that a portion of these fees be used to fund biennial economic-impact reports.

35 ILCS 31/10(c) establishes that issuance fees from IL-HTC projects are deposited into the Historic Property Administrative Fund (HPAF). 35 ILCS 31/20(c) requires that moneys in the HPAF be used to fund IL-HTC economic impact reports and suggests their contents.

35 ILCS 5/221(b-1) establishes that issuance fees from RE-HTC projects are deposited into the HPAF. 35 ILCS 5/221(c-1) requires that moneys in the HPAF be used to fund RE-HTC economic impact reports and suggests their contents.

The commissioning of the 2023 economic impact report adhered to current State of Illinois’ procurement policies. On April 20, 2022, IDNR issued a Request for Quote under Bid Solicitation number 22-422DNR-DIREC-B-28925 for the analysis of the impacts of the RE-HTC and IL-HTC programs from 2000 through 2022. PlaceEconomics, a private-sector firm with over thirty years’ experience in analyzing the economic impacts of historic preservation, was awarded the contract on June 23, 2022. From October 3 through October 7, 2022, SHPO staff and three PlaceEconomics staff visited several completed and ongoing IL-HTC and RE-HTC projects and interviewed a variety of stakeholders, from mayors to residents, developers to small-business owners.

The SHPO’s Tax Incentives & Architecture Section administers the Illinois Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program (IL-HTC), the River Edge Historic Tax Credit Program (RE-HTC) and the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit (F-HTC)