“People have realized the economic value of their heritage,” says G.M. Kapur, convener of the West Bengal and Kolkata regional chapter of Intach. “I have at least 12 requests from those wanting to house boutiques, restaurants and stores within heritage buildings.”
In a bid to provide heritage building owners cash incentives to preserve such properties, conservationists in Kolkata are lobbying for the introduction of the so-called transferable development rights. Under the plan, owners of heritage buildings who preserve them are allowed to sell space, which they may stand to lose by not knocking it down, to developers who purchase those rights and use the floor area sold to add to existing non-heritage developments in other projects. The money gained from the developer is then used to preserve these buildings. The sale of the space is entirely based on the opportunity lost, somewhat similar to carbon credit trading.
In addition to lower costs, there is also some glory to be had. In Mumbai, for example, the Sir JJ School of Art Building won an award of merit at last year’s Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards. The art educational institution was saved from decline and the award that followed has generated some more interest in restoration and reusing old buildings.
Still, preserving some of these heritage buildings is not easy, as many of them are old crumbling structures, which have seen little maintenance over the years and have sometimes even been used by squatters.
Old buildings also require a detailed cost and structure audit before they can be readied for contemporary use. For instance, disproportionately large rooms can mean wasted space and higher air conditioning bills, in addition to the cost of structural repairs.
That hasn’t deterred developers from trying to buy old properties because of a growing breed of potential buyers who are also looking for a piece of history and willing to pay a premium for it.
Harshvardhan Neotia, chairman of realty firm Ambuja Development, is scouting for an appropriate property to house his hotel project in Kolkata.
“Such a property would yield 20–30 rooms, this will eventually raise the per-bed costs and the pricing of the hotel,” says Neotia, who is confident that a niche clientele will pay a higher room rental for an old world ambience.
The critical challenge in working with heritage properties has been the evacuation of existing tenants.
Efforts to convert the Metropolitan Building on Kolkata’s Chowringhee Road, owned by the Life Insurance Corp. of India Ltd, into a retail hub have stalled as tenants refuse to vacate the building. The other big challenge in restoration work is the availability of skilled workers who can recreate construction styles.
“The making of lime mortar to plaster walls is a dying art,” said Nilina Deb Lal, a conservation architect, who says masons today are unwilling to dabble with a technique that is time consuming. As a result, cement is commonly used in restoration work as it offers quick-fix solutions.