[MassHistPres] Manipulation / Destruction of National Register District

[cvwtc at aol.com]

Good afternoon, In my hometown of Beverly, a developer created a National Register District in order to receive historic rehabilitation tax credits for one building.  At the same time, they planned to demolish two other significant buildings which would have destroyed the integrity of this district, placing those tax credits in jeopardy.  To get around this, the developer went before the Massachusetts Historical Commission, pledged their commitment to the district but then let the buildings in question deteriorate for the duration of the 5 year recapture period.  Now that those five years have expired, they recently announced plans to destroy the entire district by demolishing three key historic buildings.  Recent newspaper articles stated this was the first time in the history of the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program that this has happened. Thoughts?
Does anyone know of a similar case? What in your opinion could be done to make sure this never happens again? https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/wrecking-ball-in-store-for-beverly-historic-district/article_4cb171ea-ec78-5fac-862d-98b60e9073d4.html
 https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/state-feds-say-developer-s-tax-credits-safe-despite-plans/article_144f59a1-20f7-5835-814c-f5352994ded2.html?psid=zKlK

Matt PujoNo Country for Old Buildings Beverly, MA           
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/pipermail/masshistpres/attachments/20190423/f4216cef/attachment.html>