Top floors of Pemaco would be revived through city tax incentive

LACONIA — A forgotten theater in the Pemaco building downtown could be closer to restoration following a public hearing on other renovations there on Monday, March 24. 

City councilors will hold a public hearing at their meeting on Monday, to gather public input regarding potential tax relief to the building owners.

Sonya Misiaszek and Chad Monterose, owners of the Pemaco building at 622-634 Main St., submitted a request for tax relief to the city in preparation for apparent “substantial renovations”.  

The provisions of RSA 79-E were adopted by the city in 2012 and provide for a “community revitalization tax incentive”. The state law is meant to encourage investment in city downtowns and village centers, and provides a tax incentive for the use of older, underutilized buildings.

“It helps us a little bit financially to get this project up and running,” Misiaszek said. The building requires significant investment — there’s no heat on the upper floors, for example. Misiaszek said it could benefit the city via economic growth and providing a few more units of housing downtown.

“I think it could have a good visual impact,” she said. 

The shortage of available housing isn’t lost on her, either. She’s got at least one employee of her firm Misiaszek Turpin Architects who drives between Laconia and Concord for work. 

The tax incentive provided for in the RSA must be adopted at the municipal level before it can be offered to developers. If approved, under the language of the law, a property owner is eligible for up to 13 years of relief from increases in property taxes, depending on the details of a given project. In exchange, the owner of a property grants a covenant to the municipality for a period of time to ensure the property’s maintenance and use.

“If they meet all of the qualifications for this building which, looking at it, it appears that it does — they would be entitled to tax relief,” City Manager Kirk Beattie said at the council meeting March 10. “Whatever the building’s assessed at now — and our assessing office went out last week, they’ll be supplying me with a set of numbers prior to our next meeting, the public hearing and the next meeting with you — whatever increases they do, if you grant the relief, they would pay their taxes on what the building is worth today for the amount of time, which is up to five years.”

Property taxes on the building would be locked in to the current rate for one to five years.

“If this reduces the property tax, what effect, positive or negative, does it have to the TIF in that neighborhood?” Ward 5 Councilor Steven Bogert asked. 

“We haven’t looked into that — I’d have to look, but I’d say it’d be valued at what they’re taxed on,” Beattie replied. “I can get a confirmation on that, but I’d say it’s valued and they’d be taxed on what current is.” 

The building, located downtown across the street from the Colonial Theatre, was assessed at $726,400 in 2023, according to a property database. Pemaco Realty Holdings LLC purchased the property for $1.1 million in March 2023. 

It’s three stories tall and was built in 1926. It’s 29,448 square feet in gross size. Misiaszek indicated in 2023 the group would like to develop the second and third floors of the building to accommodate apartments and commercial spaces.

“It’s not really lowering anything, it’s going to keep it at the same value it’s at now for the number of years we determine, and then it’ll go up,” Ward 6 Councilor Tony Felch said.

Now, those renovations appear likely to move forward. Misiaszek, in an interview Friday morning, said if everything goes to plan, work would begin nearly immediately, and they’d hope to have three apartment units available at the end of the summer. 

Misiaszek is a partner of Misiaszek Turpin Architects — their offices are located within 1 Mill Plaza downtown, but they’ll move to the Pemaco building following renovations there. 

“We’ve got a little bit of structural work to do to make this open for ourselves,” she said Friday. “This was a place we could call home.” 

The third floor will become their business' new home, and half of the second floor will be three apartment units. The apartments, located on the Main Street side of the Pemaco building, overlook Canal Street. They’d like to string lights over their side alley in the same style as those installed by New Spectrum Lighting over Canal.

The other half is home to one of Laconia’s hidden gems, the old Gardens Theater. Their goal is to maintain the original character of the building, not make sweeping or dramatic changes to the exterior.

“I think the Garden’s really sort of a hidden gem here in the city,” she said Wednesday. “It’s in a little bit of a rough shape.”

They hope to offer the theater for lease, but haven’t found a partner yet. It’s in decent condition, considering its age, and is large enough to accommodate hundreds of people, based on visual inspection. 

It’s quaint in the way many buildings of the Gilded Age are, containing small staircases, a large wraparound balcony and a small alcove once used for projecting films in the theater. When the couple first walked through the theater, there were still empty film canisters in the room. Between 1926 and 1955, and again between 1972 and 1977, it was in use as a theater, but has been dormant since, except for a brief period when it was used for worship services. 

“We don’t want to cut this up,” Misiaszek said.