Work continues inside former bank downtown
Construction could begin within months
TEXARKANA, Texas — Developers continue to make progress toward renovating the former Texarkana National Bank building downtown, though it may not be apparent from outside.
Crews have completed removal of toxic materials such as asbestos on the building’s fifth through eighth floors and begun work on the fourth, owner David Peavy said Thursday. Architects have drawn up plans for the building’s interior, which will be converted into apartments. And securing the project’s financing package is well underway.
Once the abatement phase is completed and some financing hurdles cleared, interior construction can begin. That may happen as soon as three months from now, Peavy said.
“Then it becomes a real job,” he said. Completing the project will take another year to 18 months after that.
The abatement stage is being paid for by loans from the city from an Environmental Protection Agency fund earmarked for toxic site cleanups.
A key part of the project’s financing plan is state and
federal tax credits awarded to help pay for preservation of historic structures. The first step in obtaining those tax credits is official designation of a building as historic.
The Texas Historical Commission has approved historic status for the building, as well as for the parking garage at West Third and Pine streets that came with it, Peavy said. THC will pass its assessment along to the National Parks Service for consideration for the building and garage to be included on the National Register of Historic Places. Peavy is also submitting his proposed blueprints to the Parks Service as part of the same process.
If all goes according to plan, inclusion on the National Register will make the project eligible for historic tax credits. Tax credits are not tax write-offs or deductions for developers. Instead, developers sell them to investors, who get tax breaks in exchange for cash to finance the developers’ projects.
A Virginia bank is at work on a $15 million overall financing package, which will include tax credits and loans, and is “extremely positive” about the project, Peavy said. Local banks large enough to take on the project are not interested in developing downtown Texarkana, he said.
The recent winter storms caused some broken pipes and leaks in the building, to be renamed The Texarkanan, but Peavy had shut off the water supply and there was no major damage.
Peavy is discussing with city officials using the parking garage as a food truck court, as well as landscaping the triangular median between Pine Street and North State Line Avenue. He also envisions a skywalk between the bank building and parking garage, above the buildings in between.