Kathleen Kilpatrick

Restoring faith after French

We’ll know soon enough how long Justin French will spend in prison — what’s less clear is how long it will take Richmond to clean up his mess. For now, the state Department of Historic Resources is taking steps to prevent future abuse of its tax credit program.

French tax credit records raise red flags

State records obtained by Richmond BizSense show that developer Justin French has received an unusually large amount of tax credits for renovating historic buildings. Several contractors said that the rehab costs reported by French in his tax credit applications are close to double the typical range.