History has been a contentious issue for Downtown Jacksonville in recent years.

For much of 2013, there was back-and-forth over whether the Bostwick Building, known as the “jaguar building” should be saved.

On Tuesday, after weeks of discussion, City Council designated the Claude Nolan Building a local historic landmark, as it had done for the Bostwick Building.

But there’s a difference between earning local and national historic designations.

Building owners have to adhere to different guidelines, can gain different perks and often spend thousands of their own dollars to see through the lengthy application process for the national placement.

Now, there’s a push to make Downtown — or portions of Downtown — listed as a district on the National Register of Historic Places, which would help those seeking national distinction.

It’s a move that would mean the whole is greater than the sum of the parts when it comes to historic designation.

The concept has early approval from the Downtown Investment Authority, after the board voted 5-1 last week to further investigate and possibly fund the idea.

Historic preservation advocate Kay Ehas was joined by Joel McEachin and Lisa Sheppard, both of the City’s Historic Preservation Section, at the meeting to discuss the idea and the benefits that would come with the distinction.

“Historic buildings are a scarce resource,” Ehas told the board. “We’re not building any more of them.”

She also talked about the business and residential growth that generally comes with creating such districts, using similar areas in Kansas City, Philadelphia and Denver, as examples.

To qualify for the register as an individual building, the structure must be at least 50 years old to be historic. As a district, it’s different — a group of buildings could meet the criteria meaning the overall area is considered historic, not just the structures that are old enough.

Being labeled a district would mean individual building owners, regardless of the age of their building, could be eligible for one of the main perks: qualifying for a 20 percent federal tax credit for expenses incurred when rehabilitating a structure. The renovation would have to comply with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation guidelines, but is considered a perk for developers willing to invest in rehabilitating the buildings. Those credits also can be sold.

Being listed in the district wouldn’t restrict owners from modifying their properties — including demolition — unless they sought or used the federal tax credit.

“It’s amazing to me we haven’t done this yet,” authority Chair Oliver Barakat said.

McEachin said Wednesday there have been pushes for such districts in the past, but the authority’s leadership on the matter could be a deciding factor.

He and Sheppard will now work with the state to determine which clusters of buildings in the Downtown area could warrant creating a district before any application is prepared. McEachin said the buildings along the Bay Street corridor and many within the Business Improvement District likely would be considered.

From there, the authority then decide whether to spend the $30,000-$45,000 likely needed to cover hiring a consultant and the application fees for the state and federal government.

The state’s Bureau of Historic Preservation would have to sign off before building owners and officials are notified. If enough building owners in the proposed district objected, it would not be listed.

From there, the state’s National Register Review Board would make a determination before sending it to the National Parks Service’s preservation office.

It’s a local decision developer Steve Atkins said Jacksonville could have benefited from 25 years ago, before buildings were torn down.

He leads a group that bought the historic Laura Street Trio and Barnett Bank Building almost a year ago. He said the group immediately went to work in trying to designate them historic and in October the state recommended the U.S. Department of Interior place the four on the register.

As an individual building, he said, you have to make the case “from square one.”

The process, he said, is detailed and costly — the group spent $30,000-$40,000 to apply for the designation.

The district would end up saving others seeking the same designation time and money.

But, outside the tax benefit, creating a district “absolutely” makes sense for Downtown’s future in terms of generating interest.

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