Will Petaluma lose its silk mill?

In the spring of 2012, the owners of Petaluma's historic red brick silk mill announced that they had abandoned plans to convert the building into a hotel and restaurant. Since that time they have apparently abandoned the property itself, allowing the 40,000-square-foot historical landmark to fall to the ravages of time.

How can this be allowed to happen?

Originally designed by famed San Francisco architect Charles Havens, the 1892 Georgian Colonial Revival building on Lakeville Street has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historic Resources since the 1980s. There are no other existing industrial structures possessing its grandeur, as well as its historic and architectural integrity, in Northern California.

Yet the silk mill has now sat vacant for eight years since its longtime owner, Sunset Line and Twine, was sold to a Kansas company that relocated its operations to the Midwest.

The building's current owner, B.B. Patel, is CEO of Palo Alto-based BPR Properties, a firm that owns and operates a chain of Best Westerns and boutique hotels across the state. Although lack of financing was cited in Press Democrat accounts as the reason Patel relinquished his redevelopment plans for the silk mill, his company has continued to purchase and redevelop other hotel properties, including their current conversion of the historic Oregon Pioneer Building in downtown Portland.

Meanwhile, his landmark Petaluma property continues to deteriorate, an apparent victim of a strategy commonly referred to as 'demolition by neglect.' Often employed by developers to circumvent costly preservation regulations, this strategy employs a pattern of long-term neglect until a building eventually becomes so dilapidated that rehabilitation is no longer a viable option, and the building, ultimately, is demolished on public safety grounds.

San Francisco and other communities have taken clear measures to prevent demolition by neglect, requiring that routine maintenance and major repairs be made to empty properties, along with routine inspections by building department officials.

Petaluma needs to adopt similar affirmative-maintenance ordinances soon if it is to ensure that local properties that have been deemed worthy of preservation, such as the silk mill, will, in fact, be preserved over time.

In the meantime, there is promising news from the state capitol.

A recently passed bill designed to advance the preservation and renovation of historic buildings would offer a 20 percent state tax credit to developers restoring structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the California Register of Historical Resources.

The bill, AB 1999, is modeled on Ohio's program, which requires a project to show that it can generate at least as much money for the state as it takes in credit. This is a smart mechanism for boosting investment in the rehabbing of historic buildings without taking a toll on state tax revenues.

The bill moves next to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk for signature.

A comparable federal program has fostered revitalization across the nation.

If enacted into law, this bill could boost the attractiveness of Petaluma's silk mill for a new buyer interested in the preservation of this historic structure. That is, assuming the building is not allowed to decay beyond recovery by that time.

John Sheehy of Penngrove is a management consultant and Petaluma native.