Historic Hotel Renovation Scores 100% Tax Abatement

The Valley House Hotel in Brookville has been approved for a 10-year tax abatement.

The Valley House Hotel in Brookville. Indiana Landmarks photo.

(Brookville, Ind.) - A new residential development in Brookville has been given approval for a 100 percent tax abatement.

Valley House Flats will get the 10-year abatement from the Town of Brookville, according to The Brookville Democrat-American newspaper. The Brookville Town Council passed resolutions allowing the abatement on June 14 on a 2-1 vote.

Valley House Flats’ tax abatement is not to exceed $290,000 over the next decade.

The project is by Batesville developer Bruce Rippe, CEO of Trinity Guardion, LLC. It will transform the former Valley House Motel, which has been blighted and largely empty on the town’s Main Street for years. It was even once mentioned as one of the most endangered properties in the state by Indiana Landmarks.

In addition to preserving a building constructed nine years before the Civil War, the development will house approximately 38 apartments geared toward senior citizen tenants. The project will include a restaurant, a primary health care facility, onsite senior center and pharmacy.

The developer has compared the Valley House Flats project to the RomWeber Flats facility in Batesville. The former RomWeber Furniture Company warehouse is an 84-unit senior housing project opened in 2012 after undergoing an $8 million renovation.