Drive through any Gulf Coast downtown and you’ll pass them. The shuttered store with good bones. The old warehouse near the tracks. The strip center anchor that’s been dark for two years.
Most people see a problem. An architect sees a floor plate somebody already paid for, a location you couldn’t buy new at any price, and a building that’s already standing.
Renovation and reuse is a large part of what we do, and honestly it’s some of the most satisfying work in the office. Here’s how to think about it before you sign anything.
What adaptive reuse actually means
Adaptive reuse is taking a building that has outlived its original purpose and giving it a new one. A shopping center becomes a church. Old classroom buildings become a licensed day care. A motel becomes apartments. The shell stays and the purpose changes.
It’s worth separating from two things people confuse it with. Restoration returns a building to a specific historic period. Renovation updates a building for the same use it always had. Adaptive reuse is the more ambitious one, because you’re keeping the structure and rewriting what the structure is for.
That gap, between what a building was and what you need it to be, is a design problem before it’s a construction problem.
Some of ours
Our Savior’s Church, Abbeville is a good example of how far you can push an existing building. A $1.4 million project adding 2,500 square feet to an existing 12,400 square foot building. We blew out the back wall of the existing sanctuary and took seating from 230 to over 450, then wrapped a new lobby around it connecting to future parking. From the road it reads as one building, not an old one with a growth on it.
Our Savior’s Church, Lafayette is a bigger version of the same discipline. A two phase addition and renovation expanding an existing 33,068 square feet by another 25,474, with two new second floor balconies adding more than 750 seats. The hard part wasn’t the structure. It was keeping the campus fully operational the entire time it was under construction, which meant the phasing plan was as much of a design deliverable as the drawings.
Harvest Community Church took an existing shopping center and converted it to a church facility, which is about as clean a definition of adaptive reuse as you’ll find.
And on a smaller scale, we’ve taken existing metal buildings and brought them into code compliance as Group E day care facilities, which is a change of occupancy project, with everything that implies for life safety and accessibility.
Why owners choose it
Our Saviors Church Abbeville after the renovation The metal building is still under thereSpeed and cost. The structure, the foundation and often the envelope are already standing. A reuse project can put you in business months, sometimes years, sooner than a ground up build.
Location. The best positioned parcels in our downtowns and older corridors are already built on. Reuse is frequently the only way to put a business in an established, walkable district instead of out on the fringe where the empty land is.
Sustainability. The greenest building is usually the one that already exists. Reusing a structure avoids the carbon already spent making its concrete, steel and masonry, and keeps the demolition debris out of the landfill.
Character. A repurposed building carries texture that new construction spends real money imitating. Exposed brick, timber, tall windows, a facade with actual history. In hospitality, retail and creative office space especially, that authenticity is a marketing asset built into the walls.
Where the problems hide
Adaptive reuse rewards clear eyes. The savings are real and so are the surprises, and the difference between a smart buy and a money pit is almost always what you learned before closing.
Old buildings were built to old codes. Bringing one up to current life safety, accessibility and energy standards is often the single largest line item, and it isn’t optional. A change of use triggers a fresh code review, which means the building gets measured against today’s rules, not the ones in force when it was built.
Existing structures hide their era’s greatest hits. Asbestos, lead paint, undersized electrical service, plumbing at the end of its life, a roof that’s been fine only because nobody asked much of it.
And down here, the envelope has a second job. An older building may need serious work to meet current wind load and flood requirements before it can safely take on a new and more demanding use. That’s the piece out of region investors miss most often.
None of these kills a deal by itself. They’re reasons the sequence matters. The problems you find on paper are cheap. The ones you find at demolition are not.
What makes a building a good candidate
Harvest Community Church in Lafayette built inside an existing shopping centerStrong candidates share a few traits. Look for structural soundness first, because a frame and foundation with real life left in them beat charming details every time. Favor big flexible floor plates and generous ceiling heights, which give you room to insert new uses without fighting the building. Prize location and access, because you can fix almost anything except where a building sits. And weigh the character worth keeping, the facade, the windows, the guts that give the place its identity.
The warning signs are just as clear. Major foundation failure, widespread water damage, or a layout so rigid it can’t take a new use without gutting the very things that made it appealing.
Part of my job at the front end is being honest about which pile a building falls into. I’d rather tell you a building isn’t worth it than take the fee and find out with you.
The historic tax credit question
If your building is historic, the economics can improve substantially, and Louisiana is one of the better states in the country for this.
Two programs do the work on income producing buildings. The federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit offers 20% on qualified rehabilitation expenses for certified historic structures. On top of that, the Louisiana State Commercial Tax Credit adds 25% for eligible commercial buildings, rising to 35% for qualifying rural properties.
Two things to know about timing. The state program is currently scheduled to sunset on December 31, 2028, and there’s an annual cap of $85 million on credits reserved for applications received since January 1, 2025. If a credit is central to your deal, that’s a real clock and a real queue.
The credits come with rules. The work generally has to follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, and the building usually needs to be listed or contributing to a recognized historic district. I’d point you to a specialist for the application itself, and I’d bring them in early, because design decisions made without that conversation can quietly disqualify a credit you were counting on.
I’ve worked on historic projects where FEMA money restored buildings to their previous condition while adding modern code features, which is its own interesting balancing act. Those were government projects, so the tax credit path wasn’t part of them.
Send me the building
If you’re looking at an old building and wondering what it could become, that’s my favorite question to get.
Send me the address and what you’re thinking of doing with it, or call or text me at 337.454.5457. I’ll tell you what I see, including if what I see is that you should walk away.
The best time to find out whether the bones can carry your idea is before you own them.
Adam Beazley, AIA, LEED AP is the founder and principal architect of A Beazley Architecture, an award-winning firm based in Broussard, Louisiana. With over 22 years of professional experience in commercial, institutional, and religious architecture, Adam specializes in contemporary, resilient design across the Gulf Coast. Licensed in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida with an NCARB certificate. Adam leads a kingdom-minded firm committed to designing buildings that serve clients missions, strengthen communities, and stand the test of time.