Donate Your Century Home or Building To A Preservation Organization continued

An owner of a dilapidated historic building could work with a nonprofit and negotiate an option to purchase the property. The option to purchase should include a fixed time and negotiated price; donated and/or purchased. For as little as $1 a nonprofit preservation organization could obtain the option to buy the property and market the historic building as mentioned in my post, Donate Your Century Home or Building To A Preservation Organization. The organization can market the property for more than the option to purchase so that they can cover their marketing expenses, yet price the building to sell and encourage federal and state tax credits as extra incentives to purchase. Before selling the historic building, the group can place an historic easement on the structure and can put a preservation plan in place for the new owners.

Ashland has three nonprofits that could possibly do this for our city; the Ashland County Historic Preservation Alliance, the Center Street Historic District, and Ashland County Historical Society. All of these could opt to purchase an historic property but each organization would have to commit to marketing the historic structure to find a new owner.