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One morning in late November 2019, a historic office building on Duke of Gloucester Street caught fire, consuming all three stories in flames.

In the aftermath, Alderwoman Elly Tierney, a Democrat who represents the Historic District, introduced a bill requiring commercial property owners to install sprinkler systems in their buildings. Last week, the bill passed the City Council by an 8-1 vote. Tierney had withdrawn the bill at the start of the pandemic and reintroduced it in January.

The ordinance, O-1-22, budgets for property owners on Main and Francis streets to apply for loans from an existing, if underused, Sprinkler Assistance Fund, which has about $325,000 available. The bill requires owners to retrofit their buildings within five years.

“When we have fires in the Historic District, to these historic buildings, very simply, you cannot replace them,” Tierney, a Democrat, said Thursday.

Some property owners already have installed sprinkler systems while others support the intent of the bill but question why they must retrofit their buildings on what they view as a tight timeline. Construction like this can cause significant disruption to business operations and cost tens of thousands of dollars, critical owners say. They also have questioned the legality of requiring some properties to be retrofitted and others not.

“I would [add sprinklers to] every building I have right now; it’s not the money,” said Bill Greenfield, who owns about a half-dozen properties on Main Street, including those housing Hats in the Belfry and Irish Traditions. “You’re disrupting someone’s business. I don’t want to have to do that to my tenants … especially now when they’re coming out of the pandemic.”

Owners can apply for loans of up to $20,000 to pay for costs associated with installing sprinklers or up to $25,000 if they hire a contractor that is certified as a minority business enterprise by the Maryland Department of Labor. The loans have an interest rate of 1% per year and must be paid off within five years.

While there currently aren’t any minority-owned fire protection businesses in Anne Arundel County, there are about 10 in Maryland, including several in Montgomery County and Baltimore City, according to a Department of Labor business directory.

There’s nothing wrong with the city requiring sprinklers but there must be more financial assistance so that there isn’t a significant financial burden on anyone, said Harvey Blonder, who owns several Historic District properties. About 85% to 90% of his buildings have sprinklers installed already, he said.

Tierney said she worked hard to make the bill “as tenable as possible” for owners by offering low-interest loans and keeping the requirements to those properties that already have direct access to the city water main . The legislation also includes a clause stipulating that any business that installs so-called lateral lines to their properties in the future will have three years to then install a sprinkler system.

She pointed to success stories such as Joe Rubino, another Main Street property owner, who installed sprinklers in 149 Main Street more than 10 years ago. Around 2017, Rubino began renting the building’s two second-floor apartments, made possible in part because of the new sprinkler system. The first floor is occupied by The Cottage, a clothing shop, and was the former home of Kokopelli, a boutique.

Installing sprinklers qualifies property owners to develop second floors above retail spaces for expansion or as residences, Tierney said. Currently, many upper floors are used for storage or left vacant.

Requiring sprinklers in the Historic District had been discussed for at least 20 years, according to Historic Annapolis President and CEO Robert Clark, who said his organization was thrilled the bill finally passed.

“I appreciate the fact that ... to retrofit a building would be an extensive business interruption,” Clark said, “but smart people can sit down around a table and figure out how to get that done – meaning it’s not an option. It has to be done.”

For most property owners, having sprinklers has clear benefits, Rubino said, such as improving safety, lowering insurance costs and adding flexibility on use permits and occupancy.

In November, Rubino and Greenfield applied for a loan to install sprinklers at 151 Main Street, the former location of the Clay Bakers pottery studio. The space will reopen soon as a local art gallery, Rubino said. The partners had hoped to install sprinklers before the new tenant opened, but delays in permit approvals could mean the work may have to wait until next winter when business slows down, Greenfield said.

Questions remain about how the five-year window will be enforced, owners said, including some who are skeptical of the legality of requiring some but not all of the Historic District to comply with new rules still remain.

“How can you take a city and mandate two streets to spend a significant amount of money and the rest of the city is off the hook?” asked Jerry Donahoe, owner of 87 Main Street, which houses Mills Fine Wine and Spirits.

Sprinklers are part of his capital improvement plans for the building, Donahoe said, but other projects like a major roof replacement must come first. About four or five years ago, Donahoe received a quote from a fire protection company that estimated installation would cost about $80,000. That didn’t include additional costs for drywall replacement, other repairs, plus the disruption to the business while the system was installed, he said.

“I understand the intent of the law is to protect downtown,” said Donahoe, who has owned the property with his wife for nearly a decade. “It’s one thing for a politician to say it, but it’s not their money. That’s a pretty big pill to swallow.”

Estimating the cost of retrofitting fire sprinklers can be difficult, but it typically ranges from $2 to $7 per square foot for residential and commercial buildings and as much as $10 per square foot for historic buildings, Terin Hopkins, a public fire protection specialist with National Fire Sprinkler Association, said in an email.

The NFSA, a trade association that represents the fire sprinkler industry, has been supportive of the legislation since Tierney first began discussing it in 2019.

The Annapolis Fire Department also partnered with the NFSA to conduct a controlled fire demonstration at City Dock in September to showcase the need to retrofit buildings with sprinklers. Another demonstration could be in the works to continue promoting the legislation, Tierney said.

“This legislation not only protects lives but also protects our historic properties from fires for decades … to come,” Hopkins wrote. “Historic properties are not preserved until they are protected with automatic fire sprinkler systems.”