Norton Helps Secure Vital Tax Credit to Convert the Old Naval Hospital to a Community Center

Norton Helps Secure Vital Tax Credit to Convert the Old Naval Hospital to a Community Center

October 26, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the U.S. Department of Interior has awarded a 20 percent tax credit to the Old Naval Hospital Foundation for the restoration of the historic building. Norton has worked for years to transfer the Hospital to the District to become Hill Center, a community center for the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Earlier this month, Norton wrote to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar after learning that the tax credit could be in jeopardy, risking setback of the proposed rehabilitation of the Hospital.

In her letter, Norton cited the expert opinions of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the State Historic Preservation Officer for the District of Columbia that the project's historic rehabilitation plans meet the Department's standard. She wrote, "The historic rehabilitation of the Hospital is a non-profit, citizen-driven project in the very spirit of this tax credit. As you know, the Department of the Interior and the NPS use this tax credit to promote the preservation of historic properties by encouraging new uses, which is precisely what is intended with the historic rehabilitation of the Hospital."

The tax credit will save up to $1 million in the project's capital budget. In her letter, she said, "A denial of The Old Naval Hospital Foundation's application for this tax credit would be a crippling budgetary blow to the rehabilitation of a historic structure that for years, under federal ownership, was left to deteriorate badly, but has now been rescued by the community."

Norton, who worked with the Capitol Hill community to get ownership transferred to the District, got help from Congressman Sam Farr (D-CA), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, to transfer the Hospital in the FY2010 Financial Services appropriations bill.

"After coming so far, it was impossible to give up," Norton said. "The Capitol Hill community has shown extraordinary perseverance against long odds. This tax credit vindicates many years of community efforts."