Vandals are taking their toll on the windows at the six-story former Roots Pattern Shop. A plan to renovate the building into senior apartments received approval Monday by Connersville City Council.(DARRELL SMITH/News-Examiner)
The vacant and vandalized six-story former Roots Pattern Shop is closer to becoming a senior residential facility with approval by Connersville City Council of the Downtown Redevelopment District.
Steve Alexander, Prince-Alexander architects, has worked with the Connersville Redevelopment Commission to create the plan with the six-story building as the northern anchor.
Since October, the commission has been working to fund the renovation of the building using Section 42 tax credits through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority,” he explained. “To gain the credits, applicants must go through a complicated scoring process based on several issues such as being an historic building, if it has sustainable attributes, if it’s senior housing compared to multi-family housing.”
After working on similar projects over the years, one of the most important things to earn extra points is to create the development plan, he said.
“We looked at different boundaries as what could reasonably be considered a master plan for downtown that would meet the strategic objectives of meeting the point scoring objectives for Section 42,” Alexander said. “Our objective was not to bite off more than we could chew or propose wild redevelopment to the downtown but to provide a minimally compliant plan of which the six-story building would be a critical part.”
When looking at the downtown and what would be the most realistic business sectors that could be attracted downtown and serve as an economic development engine, senior housing is at the top of the list, he said. During the recession, one of the biggest areas of growth has been multi-family housing. Apartment construction in Indianapolis is booming.
This project will get consumers into the downtown area and will also take advantage of the timing in the financial sector that supports multi-family housing. You have a state-of-the-art senior transportation service, which is important, and the grant judges also look at access to pharmacies, restaurants and walkability to the downtown. This project presents all those pieces, he said.
There are other sites that have been identified that could later be developed into senior housing, he added.
Quest Commercial Real Estate will serve as the primary investment group. The grant is due in the fall and the announcement of successful applications will be in February 2015. If the application is successful, the Community Education Coalition, which still owns the building, would pass the property to the Redevelopment Commission and then to Quest, he said.
“In October when this was first presented, we were all wondering about this building and about the district,” Mayor Leonard Urban said. “We’ve done all kinds of studies and they’ve been put on the shelf. This is a study that has been done and we’re moving straight forward to do what it suggests.”
The Redevelopment Commission has worked hard to get to this point. The commission was able to take the former Fifth Third Bank Building, also owned by the CEC, and pass it through to a private owner and keep the jobs at Issues & Answers, he said. It would help bring people downtown to stores and the Whitewater Valley Railroad. It could be a wonderful project with a walking trail from the building to the shops and stores.
The building has broken windows as vandals throw objects at the vacant historic building, built for the Connersville Furniture Co.
“We did the Park Hotel in Rockville that had been abandon for 30 years and the roof had caved in,” Alexander said. “It was an eyesore on the town square. We got Section 42 credits and historic tax credits and since then the county has used the first floor for the license bureau. With tourism for the Covered Bridge Festival, the town square is an important part of the festival.”
Projects have also been completed in Kokomo, Madison and Perrysville and some others.
The building would be at the north end of the district from Washington Street to the river and Court Street to 12th Street.
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