When Missouri’s legislature adjourned this spring it left intact the state’s Historic Tax Credit Program. Of course, the fight may not be over, the Missouri Preservation notes on its website.

Missouri Preservation notes the tax credit program can be thanked for roughly 43,000 jobs, $670,000 million in taxes and $2.9 billion in private investment, according the St. Louis University Study 2010.

Columbia benefited from the tax credit program to the tune of $15 million according to a document on the Missouri Preservation website, “Case Studies: Three Construction Projects in Columbia That Would Not Have Happened Without Historic Preservation Tax Credits.”

The document cites the following projects:

• $2 million, 2007 renovation of the 1932 Coca Cola Bottling Company on Hitt Street, which now houses the Ragtag Cinema, Ninth Street Video and Uprise Bakery.
• $10 million, 2007-2008 renovation of the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, which the document notes employed more than 350 workers from more than eight communities in addition to Columbia.
• $3 million, 2008-2009 renovation of the Berry Building Warehouse on Walnut Street. Once nearly derelict, the building now houses a Wilson’s Fitness Center, 12 luxury apartments and retail space.

Interested in keeping those tax credit dollars flowing? Join Missouri Preservation, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting, supporting and coordinating historic preservation activities in Missouri, and you will be kept informed.

Learn more about the tax credits  here.