Old Richmond house becomes do-it-yourself tax-credit project

by Dena Sloan
for Virginia Business
July 2005

Ralph Skiano is more accustomed to dealing with Beethoven and Brahms than tax-credit brokers. Nonetheless, Skiano, the principal clarinetist with the Richmond Symphony, and his fiancée Ann Choomack, a symphony flutist, are trying to use historic tax credits to help finance the rehabilitation of a house they bought in Richmond.

The couple is attempting to manage the tax-credit process by themselves with the help of some sympathetic state officials. That’s not a highly recommended course. Though many people in the historic restoration business say Virginia’s Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program is easier to navigate than similar programs, developers often leave the paperwork to their accountants, lawyers and consultants. “Don’t try this at home,” jokes Brian Wishneff, president of Roanoke-based Brian Wishneff & Associates, a firm that advises developers on qualifying for and selling Virginia historic rehabilitation tax credits.

Skiano and Choomack’s efforts illustrate the fact that people don’t have to be in the market for millions of dollars for renovations to consider using state historic tax credits.

The couple purchased a dilapidated house last year in the city’s Jackson Ward district with plans to renovate the 125-year-old structure for use as their home. “This is one of the only cities on the East Coast where you can come in and do this,” Skiano says, especially on musicians’ salaries.

Rather than hire a consultant to walk them through the process, Skiano and Choomack have been learning as they go. They opted to fill out much of the tax-credit program paperwork themselves. To make sure renovations fall within historic guidelines, they regularly run plans by government officials, often waiting outside their offices to get a chance to talk. “We spend a lot of time … sitting on doorsteps,” Choomack says.

An agent in Virginia Beach will help syndicate their tax credits, but they don’t yet know how much of the estimated $120,000 of renovations will qualify for the credits. Because of delays, it will likely be several months before they can convert the credits into cash. That means those funds will be used to pay off renovation-related credit card debt, rather than going directly into the project as they had originally hoped to do.

Despite the frustrations and delays, Skiano and Choomack say they would do it all over again. He says he even enjoyed the hours spent filling out the paperwork. “It was like a school project,” he says. “And you make some money.”