{"id":1004083247,"date":"2013-09-06T13:11:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T21:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004083247"},"modified":"2022-12-09T02:53:08","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T10:53:08","slug":"trading-students-for-tenants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/trading-students-for-tenants\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading Students for Tenants"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anna Spiewak, News Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Bancroft<\/a>

Bancroft School in Kansas City, Mo. being repurposed into 50 affordable LEED Platinum apartments<\/p><\/div>\n

They say sometimes one man\u2019s misfortune is another man\u2019s gain. But when it comes to converting shut-down school buildings for other uses, everybody seems to win.<\/p>\n

As schools across the nation close due to dwindling enrollment and shrinking population, school boards are learning to better market them to potential developers in hope of breathing new life into old, sometimes decrepit buildings (though in some cases historic preservations). For the developer, it offers a chance to help a community while getting such a deal that it is easy to turn a profit on rental.<\/p>\n

Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City (Mo.), Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tulsa, Washington, D.C., and perhaps most notably Detroit are all areas where school districts have had to shut down a large number of facilities due to debt and budget cuts.<\/p>\n

According to a report by Pew Charitable Trusts, which studied the 12 districts, since 2005 they have sold, leased or reused a combined 267 properties, with another 301 unused sites on the market.<\/p>\n

And since empty buildings cast a shadow on a neighborhood and are costly to seal and insure, a number of school districts are forming organizations to help market the edifices accordingly and put them to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cOftentimes, these buildings are the largest structure in a residential neighborhood, and if they\u2019re allowed to deteriorate and become magnets for illicit activities\u2014or even catch fire, as they have done in several instances\u2014that has a big impact on the entire community,\u201d said Emily Dowdall, a senior associate at Philadelphia-based Pew.<\/p>\n

The public policy organization decided to study the school reuse\u00a0phenomenon after its own Philadelphia school district attempted to sell 12 empty buildings in 2011. It has so far managed to sell six, but at the end of the most recent school year 24 more schools closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe large-scale closure of public school buildings has become a fact of life in many American cities, and our research shows that the trend is not likely to stop anytime soon,\u201d Dowdall added.<\/p>\n

The most common reuse of a school building, at 40 percent of the time, tends to be conversion into a charter school. But since charter schools are seen as competition for existing schools with already struggling enrollment, some consider it a conflict of interest. So 10 percent of the time, schools are converted to housing\u2014whether market rate or subsidized, and whether multi-family, seniors or affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing is one of the most viable options for reuse of a school, aside from converting it to another school,\u201d said Shannon Jaax, director of the Kansas City Public Schools Repurposing Initiative. The initiative program was started in January 2011 to promote the reuse and redevelopment of 30 closed schools in that city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe classrooms convert really well into\u00a0a one- or two-bedroom apartment,\u201d she added. \u201cWe have quite a few sites that are strong contenders for housing\u2014more so than other alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kansas City classrooms range from 750 to 900 square feet, which is a common size for a small apartment.
\nThe Kansas City school district started with 30 closed facilities and to date has sold six of them, with two designated for housing.<\/p>\n

Sale prices for shut-down schools vary between $200,000 and $1 million, well below initial projections. Factors contributing to the low prices include condition and location of the buildings.<\/p>\n

Other reuses include homeless shelters, churches, community centers and offices. Occasionally, the structures are razed to make room for shopping centers.<\/p>\n

Since the easiest buildings to repurpose are those that have not been closed for very long, several school districts are re-evaluating their approach and attempting to move more aggressively to sell or lease facilities soon after they become empty. The districts are also discussing the possibility of making the sales more transparent to potential developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDealing with school buildings is not a traditional thing that school districts do,\u201d said Jaax. \u201cMost districts just hire a real estate broker to represent them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given Detroit\u2019s bankruptcy filing, it is not surprising it\u2019s the city with the largest number of closed schools. It has also reused the largest amount of the buildings, and local developer Joel Landy is partly responsible for that. The Detroit native, through his company Cass Avenue Development (www.cassavenue.com), has relocated local businesses into four of the schools, including converting one abandoned school (Burton International) into a two-screen movie theater called Cass City Cinema, a 120-child Montessori school, several art studios, a law office and an office for a movie producer.<\/p>\n

Another school (Jefferson) bought back in 1991 for $1,000 brings in $64,500 a month from its tenant\u2014charter school Experiencia Preparatory Academy.\u00a0All of Landy\u2019s buildings are 100 percent occupied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have found it a treasure to reuse our tax dollars and at the same time preserve our neighborhood centers and their historic built environment,\u201d said Landy.<\/p>\n

Read this article in its original format in the\u00a0September 2013 issue\u00a0<\/a>of CPE.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As schools across the nation close due to dwindling enrollment and shrinking population, school boards are learning to better market them to potential developers in hope of breathing new life into old edifices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":952,"featured_media":1004083248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004083247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrading Students for Tenants - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/trading-students-for-tenants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trading Students for Tenants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As schools across the nation close due to dwindling enrollment and shrinking population, school boards are learning to better market them to potential developers in hope of breathing new life into old edifices.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/trading-students-for-tenants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-06T21:11:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-09T10:53:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2013\/09\/Bancroft-school.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"955\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anna Spiewak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/trading-students-for-tenants\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/trading-students-for-tenants\/\",\"name\":\"Trading Students for Tenants - 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