Includes index.

Introduction -- Why historic preservation matters Making the case for historic preservation -- Real estate is the name of the game Why preservationists need to know and understand real estate -- Working with endangered properties How preservation North Carolina works with property -- Creative alternatives to acquisition Using others' money and time to do your work -- Going to the mat for a property When purchase is the only alternative -- The Architectural animal shelter Marketing endangered properties -- Closing the deal while protecting the property The delicate balance between the ideal and the achievable -- Doing the right thing and staying true to the building Finding a balance between purity and flexibility -- The functional nonprofit preservation organization The need for a strong staff and a supportive board -- A case study: Armstrong apartments in Gastonia Weaving together numerous tools and partners - and keeping faith -- When success is elusive dealing with disasters and near-misses -- Protection without ownership Using easements to protect properties that are not for sale -- How to deal with institutions Leveraging your knowledge and contacts to save institutional buildings -- Complex and challenging projects Creating a market for unusual properties -- Building relocation: Victory or defeat? Moving structures may or may not be good preservation -- Museums and stewardship properties What to do with truly special places -- Partnerships for preservation Partnering can make larger projects possible -- The people of preservation Preservationists as social capital.

As part of efforts to save endangered properties and encourage downtown and neighborhood revitalization, many of the nation's most successful historic preservation and downtown development organizations have become actively involved in real estate. Buying Time for Heritage explains how one nonprofit organization, Preservation North Carolina (PNC), has creatively employed common real estate strategies to save more than 500 endangered historic properties from destruction. As Myrick Howard explains, large sums of money are not always needed, but knowledge and passion are required. Howard provides practical tips on how a neighborhood, downtown, or preservation group can get involved in beneficial real estate work with only modest resources. Inspiring photographs illustrate his premise that a property is rarely too far gone to be renovated, and the rewards of renovation are abundant. Buyers of PNC properties have put them to a multitude of new uses, adding millions of dollars to local tax rolls and creating numerous jobs. Several properties have been adapted into affordable housing, and thousands of acres of open space have been placed under protective covenants, perpetually restricting their development. Rather than face off against developers, PNC itself has become a developer - for community benefit. This volume offers a model for other organizations working to make historic communities thrive.

CIT Module ARCH 8003 - Core reading