Experts say it can often be quicker and less expensive to repurpose an existing building than to build a new one. Even when the cost is higher, “the tax advantage evens that out,” said Janis Milham, senior vice president for modern essentials and extended stay at Marriott International.

Some chains turn to the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive Program of the National Park Service, administered with the Internal Revenue Service. It grants tax credits of up to 20 percent that can be used to help finance the rehabilitation of historic buildings to preserve their character.

(The federal program, which is available in all 50 states, can also be piggybacked onto state historic tax credits that over half the states have.) A historic building need not be converted to a hotel, although about 4.5 percent of the tax credits are used for that purpose. The dollar amount spent on conversions, including hotels, rose to $6.7 billion in 2013 from $5.3 billion in 2012, according to statistics from the National Park Service.

One developer who has used the program is Mehul Patel, chief executive of NewcrestImage, a developer in Irving, Tex. He converted the Fisk Medical Arts Building in Amarillo, Tex., to a Marriott Courtyard in 2010. He said the project in Amarillo created a sense of nostalgia for some guests. “They understand history and respect it,” he said.

He has turned his attention to the 150-year-old Cotton Exchange in New Orleans. He expects to begin work directly and will spend more than $10 million in improvements to the building. He anticipates the hotel will become one of the first AC Hotels in the United States, a three-year-old European chain that is a joint venture between Marriott International and the Spanish hotel Group AC Hotels. “Technology allows us to be more efficient than previously,” he said.