Connection
thesis come to life. We bought a derelict medical campus for $1 and got a refund of $900,000 in order to do the environmental abatement and raze the (non-historic) additions — and that was the easiest part of the project. What followed was a transformation of a 384,000-square-foot historic hospital into a mixed-use transit-oriented development in one of Cleveland’s most depressed communities (at the time). The project became 137 units of affordable senior housing (two market rate), two not-for-profit headquarters, a Boys & Girls Club, a preschool, and a K-8 charter school that utilized senior mentors in their pedagogical model. (Cue the groans from the thesis adviser.)
Above: Before and after exterior view of the Saint Luke’s Hospital adaptive reuse. Opposite Left: Interior images from the charter school classrooms at Saint Luke’s Hospital adaptive reuse. Oppositve Right Shaker Square (Cleveland, Ohio). Courtesy: Cleveland Neighborhood Progress
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The project was beautifully designed (Wallace Roberts & Todd, DLR Group), but it was the financial structure of the deal that was truly innovative. To fund the rehab, we utilized state and federal historic tax credits, new-market tax credits, low-income-housing tax credits, and an $8 million capital campaign. We had such incredible buy-in that the contractor (Mistick Construction) fronted $4.5 million worth of work prior to the [financial] closing of the third phase (which was 10 days before the first day of school)! That is just not something that happens. In order to secure the anchor tenant (The Intergenerational School), we turned over $4.5 million of the capital campaign so that they could be an equity investor and get the rent rates they needed. And the cherry on top? That it was the residents — in a community planning process eight years prior — that hatched the idea by circling the derelict hospital on a neighborhood map in red sharpie. Needless to say, the bathrooms were spotless for the ribbon cutting, and sharpie-circled “Saint Luke’s” will always remain the best project many of us will ever work on.