Published on November 20th, 2023 – Updated November 25th, 2023

By Shayla Gaulding shayla@emporia.com

The Chase County Old School Development District Board has officially turned over the keys to the historic limestone building that was once home to the former Chase County Elementary, just months ahead of planned renovations to transform the building into affordable housing.

The project has been years in the making, finally beginning to pick up steam after a months-long search for a developer connected the CCOSDD board with Tyler Holloman, the owner of Frontier Management.

Through months of planning and applications for housing grants, the project gained support throughout the community, with the Cottonwood Falls City Council authorizing an application for a Moderate Income Housing grant through the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation in Oct 2022 and the Chase County Commission writing a letter of support for state-wide grant opportunities in December 2022.

In April, the project was the recipient of $1 million in state funding — including $650,000 in Moderate Income Housing funds and $350,000 in Kansas Housing Investor Tax Credits — to help bolster the project.

CCOSDD finalized the sale of the former Chase County Elementary School to Frontier Property Management on Sept. 5. Since then, the board has continued to maintain the community center, while Frontier Group has stepped in as owner and operator of the soon-to-be apartment building.

After the official hand-off of the keys last week, Holloman said all pre-design work has been submitted and gained approval from the Kansas State Historic Preservation Society and the National Park Service, and he hopes to be able to begin construction in early 2024.

“It’s such an amazing building,’ Hollowman said. “We were very fortunate that it was already preserved by a group, by the nonprofit board here. We look forward to carrying on that legacy, making sure that the building is renovated in a historically appropriate manner and the protections that come with listing the building on the state and national registry will make sure that the building is maintained for future generations to come.”

After completion, the old school building will be transformed into 10 ADA-accessible, one and two-bedroom apartments. Each of the school’s two levels will contain five apartments, each with its own laundry facility, kitchen, bathroom, thermostat and HVAC unit.

Much of the original architecture and classroom furniture, from chalkboards to doors, will be saved or incorporated into the apartments and the original hallway structure of the school will be preserved.

“For the most part, each classroom is becoming its own apartment,” Holloman said.

Frontier has done similar work in other Kansas communities, including in Alma where the company recently renovated the historic 1890 Limerick Building into eight apartments. The Limerick building, which began its life as the Bank of Alma, has since housed many businesses in the community before Frontier acquired the building, seamlessly creating new moderate-income housing while preserving the stunning architectural feats of 19th-century Kansas.

CCOSDD board members who attended the ceremonial handing over of the keys said it was a bittersweet moment.

“It’s sadder than I thought it would be,” CCOSDD board member Cheryl Glibbery said.

It’s been 13 years in the making for board president Lee Anne Coester, who has been a longtime advocate of saving the former elementary school. Coester said she knows the community shared hopes that the building could once again become a school, but as that was not possible, she thinks housing is the second best use for the building.

“I have shed a few tears both ways; both sorry and very happy,” Coester said. “… Having it be Tyler and Frontier Group was what made this feasible. Not just because he was good to work with but because he got our vision of what we were doing.”

Board member Mike Schmidt said the availability of 10 new housing units will be a huge benefit for the Chase County community.

“It’s going to have repercussions and ripple effects through the whole community as people move in here, other things are going to become open and allow people to move around and just make it a better overall community,” Schmidt said.

“I literally had the sheriff, the jail, the school district, the city department, LMI Aerospace [Sonaca] all say that they could not hire people because there was no housing,” Coester added. “They were so limited on who they could get because there was no housing, so this is going to be fantastic for, like Mike said, for the ripple effect through so many different areas.”

Anyone interested in leasing one of the apartments is encouraged to call the main office at 785-370-0162 during the summer of 2024 as Frontier nears the completion of the new housing units.

“We have not started a formal waitlist yet. We will start that when it gets a little closer to being completed,” Holloman said. “We are targeting a December 2024 completion date. We are hoping to start moving people in close to the end of next year, which means we will probably start pre-leasing sometime in the summer.”

Holloman said Frontier Management is excited to be working in Chase County and providing much-needed, affordable housing to its residents, old and new.

“We’re just excited to be working here,” he said. “We have heard from a lot of employers in town that there is a need for housing and the community has been extremely supportive so far so we look forward to carrying on the legacy of this great building.”

Source: https://www.emporiagazette.com/cln/article_3a3b0a96-87f9-11ee-901c-df6636f5c813.html