The North Side Community Development Fund has been awarded $4 million in tax credits, an allocation director Mark Masterson said clears "a huge hurdle" toward the $12 million needed to rehabilitate five buildings in the Federal-North redevelopment plan.

The fund, an arm of the Northside Leadership Conference, applied for the tax credits in February along with 249 entities and was one of 99 favored.

The $4 million in tax credits is the largest the fund has received. It has won tax credits three out of four tries over five years, said Mr. Masterson.

"We have time constraints to sell them," within about two years, he said, "and another $7 million or $8 million is needed for the whole project."

The Northside Leadership Conference and the Central Northside Neighborhood Council are working from a multi-faceted plan the neighborhood has devised, with the Garden Theater block as a category unto itself.

"The thing to figure out is what to do with the Garden," Mr. Masterson said. "The options are being whittled down" for reuse of the former porn theatre, the former Masonic Hall and the Bradbury Apartment building behind it and two buildings east of the Garden on North Avenue.

He said some ideas include a boutique hotel, a restaurant combined with a theater, and "maybe a brew pub franchise."

He said conference officials have visited old theaters that have been refitted to include restaurants.

"It's probably going to be a year before anything happens. There's money we have to raise and a state budget not real conducive to that."

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