Good News in Tough Times: Historic Preservation and the Georgia Economy booklet

PlaceEconomics

Booklet on historic preservation in Georgia featuring the following chapters: Historic Preservation is Spurring Investment; Historic Preservation is Attracting Visitors; Historic Preservation is Revitalizing Downtowns; Historic Preservation is Effectively Leveraging Scarce Resources; A Tale of Four Cities: Macon, Savannah, Decatur, Madison; and Making It All Happen. From introduction: "The first decade of the 21st Century has been a challenging one for the national economy. Two recessions, the second being the longest and the deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s, have meant loss of jobs, loss of incomes, and loss of tax revenues. Georgia has not been immune to these economic difficulties. Among the indicators of these economic challenges are: Rapid decline in housing prices; High levels of unemployment; Declining state government revenues. But beneath these bad news headlines, a different story emerges. Historic preservation in Georgia has been adding jobs, increasing property values, spurring investment, and generating income. During the last decade: Over 10,000 jobs have been created through the rehabilitation of historic structures. Those jobs have meant $420 million in household income for Georgia citizens. 5,100 net new businesses have opened their doors in Georgia Main Street and Better Hometown downtowns. Businesses in those downtowns have added 23,000 net new jobs. Historic preservation has effectively leveraged scarce local dollars through the effective use of federal programs for transportation, local government, and heritage tourism. Every year the heritage portion of Georgia’s tourism industry sustains 117,000 jobs, generating nearly $204,000,000 in wages, and $210,000,000 in local tax revenues. The non-profit sector, from the Georgia Cities Foundation to the Garden Club of Georgia, Inc., to the Fox Theatre, have seen the wisdom of investing their resources in historic preservation. This report is about an often overlooked story – the positive impact that historic preservation has on the Georgia economy in every corner of the state. Today historic preservation in Georgia is: Spurring investment; Attracting visitors; Revitalizing downtowns; Effectively leveraging scarce resources. In short – Historic Preservation is Good News in Tough Times." Project funding was provided in part by a 2010 Historic Preservation Fund grant administered by the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office (project number GA-10-016, grant number 13-10-21917) and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Good News in Tough Times: Historic Preservation and the Georgia Economy booklet

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