An upgrade to a historic building in downtown Jonesboro is getting yet another upgrade.
Plans for a historic renovation of the C.A. Stuck and Sons Lumber Office Building have changed to include dozens more micro-lofts than originally envisioned, as well as planned offices and retail space.
The change in thinking follows the downtown Jonesboro area’s designation as one of 85 statewide Opportunity Zones, which under federal law qualifies the area for tax incentives for investment. Renovation of the building, named to the National Register of historic places, already qualified for federal state and state tax credits totaling 45 percent.
Jetton General Contractors of Paragould agreed during the summer to buy the building, built in 1889 and located on 215 Union St., and convert into a mixed-use structure that would include company headquarters and residential space.
The acquisition and renovation price tag was estimated at $3 million and, thanks to the historic designation, a renovation would qualify for 20 percent federal tax credit and 25 percent state credit. The Stuck building’s plan for a historical renovation would have only allowed space for 12 micro-lofts within the roof line, Jetton General Contracting President Andrew Berner told local television.
The renovation now will include 60 micro-lofts along with the office and retail space.
The change in plans follows the designation of the downtown Jonesboro area as one of the Opportunity Zones proposed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in April. The Opportunity Zone designations, approved by the U.S. Treasury Department as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, provide tax incentives for private investment in low-income communities across the nation.
The designation, plus input from city officials and Arkansas State University students, underscored the demand for affordable, downtown living space.
The project is in the design phase, but if all plans are approved construction is expected to start in early 2019, with completion projected for the first quarter of 2020.
Jetton General Contracting and Cooper Mixon Architects of Jonesboro are working on the project.
Eligible Opportunity Zones are based on U.S. Census tracts, and state governors may nominate up to 25 percent of eligible tracts for approval. There were 337 tracts eligible in Arkansas and Arkansas Economic Development Commission officials said the 85 that Hutchinson nominated were selected based on potential for economic success and for attracting investment.
The program provides a tax incentive for investors to invest unrealized capital gains into Opportunity Funds dedicated to investing in the designated Opportunity Zones.
Investor benefits include a temporary capital gains tax deferral, a step-up basis for capital gains invested and a permanent exclusion from taxable income of capital gains, from the sale or exchange of an investment, if the investment is held for at least 10 years.
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