A Study of the Key Factors Influencing Public-Private Partnership for the Revitalization and Reuse of Historical Buildings.

Historical buildings are valuable economic and cultural resources in cities. Yet, the revitalization and reuse of historical buildings in Taiwan is currently facing serious problems, such as lack of enough governmental fund, inconsistency in conservation policies, and lack of suitable evaluation framework in selecting potential investors for the reuse and revitalization of historical buildings. Given the financial difficulties in many local governments in maintaining historical buildings and the increasing demand in public-private partnership (PPP) in preserving and revitalizing historical buildings, developing a suitable framework for identifying the key factors of selecting suitable investors in order to reuse historical buildings has become an important research issue. Employing research methods involving interviews, field survey, fuzzy theory, and AHP, this study attempts to explore two sets research questions: (1) how should we develop an appropriate analytical framework for identifying the key factors of selecting investors in order to promote the reuse of historical buildings; and (2) How should we address and compare the opinions of public agencies and potential investor groups in order to preserve the historical value of historical buildings as well as to meet the business need of the investors. The result identifies an evaluation framework for selecting suitable investors. It also compares the opinions of public agencies and private investor in weighting the elements of the framework. The proposed framework includes two levels. Level one consists of six dimensions. Among them, “investment management and policy incentives”is commonly accepted by both decision groups as the most important dimension. Besides, private investors also think “financial and cost consideration”is important. The difference of viewpoint between government and investors also suggest that some efforts need to be made to build consensus.