Historic Development Grant Program
In April 2021 the Tennessee General Assembly developed the Historic Development Grant Program (HDGP) and allocated $4.8 million to renovate and preserve the State’s historic buildings. The legislators recognized that historic buildings and their preservation expand the state’s economy, create new employment opportunities, revitalize and renew communities, create an environment for investment, and promote tourism and rural economic development.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will begin accepting the letter of intent for the HDGP on May 15, 2023. The application will be available July 10th, 2023. The amount of grant request and required match rate is dependent upon the current tax tier of the county where the project is located. (Tier information located here).
Eligible Properties:
- Certified historic structures that are:
- listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places or are part of a National Register of Historic Places historic district and certified by the secretary of the United States Department of the Interior as being of historic significance to the district (Additional information on the National Register can be obtained from the Tennessee Historical Commission); and
- are in a tier three (3) or four (4) county as determined by TNECD; or federally qualified opportunity zone (see the TNECD Opportunity Zones directory for a map of opportunity zones in Tennessee); or state and nationally accredited Tennessee Main Street community or Tennessee Downtown community (Information can be found here); or Certified Local Governments (Information can be found here) approved by the National Parks Service in counties with a population of no more than 200,000 persons.
- The applicant must be the person or entity who holds legal fee or leasehold title to a certified historic structure or an identifiable portion of the certified historic structure.
Any expenditure for a structural component of a building is eligible for grant funds. Treasury Regulation 1.48-1(e)(2) defines structural components to include walls, partitions, floors, ceilings, permanent coverings such as paneling or tiling, windows and doors, components of central air conditioning or heating systems, plumbing and plumbing fixtures, electrical wiring and lighting fixtures, chimneys, stairs, escalators, elevators, sprinkling systems, fire escapes, and other components related to the operation or maintenance of the building.
In addition to the above named "hard costs," there are "soft costs" which also qualify. These include construction period interest and taxes, architect fees, engineering fees, construction management costs, reasonable developer fees, and any other fees paid that would normally be charged to a capital account. More information on soft costs can be found on the Technical Preservation Services website.
For questions about the program, please reach out to: Logan McCoy (Email), Brooxie Carlton (Email), or Nancy Williams (Email)
Awards are anticipated to be announced in the fall. Projects activities cannot begin until the grant contract is executed and must be complete within thirty-six (36) months. Only expenses incurred during the contract period will be eligible for reimbursement.
The letter of intent (LOI) will be available May 15th and is due June 23rd. LOIs will be reviewed for eligibility prior to the application availability on July 10th. The letter of intent is required to proceed to the application. The 2023 HDGP webinar recording and presentations slides can be found here:
LOI Webinar.pdf (download)
HDGP LOI Webinar (Video)
2023 Letter of Intent Webinar Slideshow(Presentation Slides)
How to Pursue the Historic Tax Credit (Presentation Slides)
HDGP and HTC Case Study (Presentation Slides)
For questions about the program, please reach out to: Logan McCoy (Email), Brooxie Carlton (Email), or Nancy Williams (Email)
Letter of Intent- Please click the link above for the 2023 Letter of Intent. This is a requirement to proceed to the application on July 10.
Application- The application will be available on July 10th 2023
Please see the file document below for the current list of frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Additional Resources
- Hpca-instructions-2019.pdf *Down File - Save to computer - Open Adobe - Open the file from within Adobe
- Hpca-part1-2019.pdf *Down File - Save to computer - Open Adobe - Open the file from within Adobe
- Hpca-part2-2019.pdf *Down File - Save to computer - Open Adobe - Open the file from within Adobe
- Hpca-part3-2019.pdf *Down File - Save to computer - Open Adobe - Open the file from within Adobe
- Photo Key Instructions.pdf
- Photo Key Example.pdf
Monthly Grant Reporting - Due by the 25th of each month
Closeout & Reimbursement
To close out your HDGP grant and receive your reimbursement, TNECD will need the following completed:
- Monitoring Visit Completion - Please reach out to logan.mccoy@tn.gov to schedule the visit
- Completed Closeout Report - Found Here. Be sure to change the “This is an:” field to “Closeout Report”
- An approval email from the TN Historic Commission approving the NPS Part 3 Form- A copy of the NPS Part 3 Form can be submitted to justin.heskew@tn.gov at the TN Historic Commission for review and approval
- Certificate of Occupancy
- Completed Reimbursement Request Submission - Once you have received an Invoice Template from Logan McCoy, please follow the instructions found here for compiling the backup documentation and submitting the documentation to TNECD.
- Historic Development Grant Program (HDGP) - Grantee Compliance Webinar-20230130_090204-Meeting Recording.mp4