Jones School apts incentive for neighborhood change

Saturday, September 2, 2017
Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE The former Jones Elementary School building, seen from the Madison Street side, is proposed to be converted into Emma Jones Village with 25 apartments created in a senior housing development.

Calling the Jones School redevelopment project “a catalyst for change” on Greencastle’s northwest side, the City Plan Commission unanimously approved a rezoning request for 3.08 acres of the property at its August meeting.

Emma Jones Village, a proposed senior rental community being developed by Milestone Ventures -- the same folks who successfully converted Miller School into senior apartments -- is designed to include 13 one-bedroom units and 12 two-bedroom units within the school building constructed in 1954 and add-on construction to the northeast side.

Six units will be included in the new construction, while 19 will be created within the old school footprint of what the developer called “an awkward-shaped building.”

The Plan Commission gave its approval to rezone the site from GB-1 (general business) to single-family 2 following a motion by Donnie Watson, who made the “catalyst” remark.

The rezoning will require two subsequent readings and approvals by the City Council, while an appearance before the Greencastle Board of Zoning Appeals also awaits Milestone Ventures principal developer Chuck Heintzelman in October.

Plan Commission Chairman Wayne Lewis noted that much of the neighborhood surrounding Jones School -- vacant the past five years after the county quit using it as a courthouse annex -- has been deteriorating.

“A project like Jones School” Lewis said, “can make things more attractive” and serve as an incentive to others to improve their properties.

Plan Commission member Matt Welker agreed.

“With what that will do for the neighborhood, I think it’s great,” he said of the proposed project for which Heintzelman’s timetable suggests an October 2018 groundbreaking.

Milestone Ventures, as it did with the Miller School/Miller Asbury Apartment project, will be applying for Indiana tax credits. That application is due in November with the tax credits awarded in February 2018.

Because of the receipt of such tax credits, seniors will have to qualify through income guidelines. Typical monthly rents will be $250-$545 for one-bedroom units and $300-$595 for two-bedroom apartments.

“That’s comparable to what we charge at Miller Asbury right now,” Heintzelman said.

Each Jones School classroom will become a two-bedroom apartment, while the old gymnasium will be converted to three one-bedroom units and the adjoining kitchen with its sloping ceiling will be the smallest one-bedroom in the plan.

Heintzelman said the main entrance to the development will be off Madison Street with the main parking area off the east side of the structure. Asphalt areas along the east side will be converted to green space, he said.

The project will need a BZA variance for parking spaces as the ordinance calls for 1.5 spaces per unit. That would mean the need for 37 or 38 spaces at Emma Jones Village.

The site plan currently shows 29 spaces with six more on the Madison Street side designated for visitors.

Heintzelman pointed out that 1.5 spaces per unit is excessive for a senior housing project. Typically, he said, that figure is .75 spaces per unit in other places he has apartments like Danville and Edinburgh. Not all seniors drive and few senior couples have two vehicles, it was noted.

“If you go over to Miller Asbury, you will see many of the spaces are vacant,” he said, noting that 45 parking spaces are available at Miller and “they’re probably using 20 of them.”

Lloyd Gentry, who has a nearby apartment building at 111 W. Columbia St., asked if any studies had been done to the determine the need for such apartments.

Heintzelman said he has a third-party market study under way currently, but his own statistics show a definite need.

Milestone Ventures, which also operates Millstone Pointe off South Street on the southeast side of Greencastle, said he has 73 people on a waiting list combined for Miller Asbury and Millstone Pointe units. He said 85 percent of the residents at Millstone Pointe are also 55 and older, like their Miller Asbury counterparts.

The one-bedoom units at Jones are expected to be a little smaller than Miller Asbury, while the two-bedrooms are expected to be a bit bigger.

The Emma Jones Village development will also include an exercise room, a commons area with microwave, tables and chairs and a leasing office.

City Planner Shannon Norman called the building “an anchor corner,” noting that the project will allow the old school property to go back on the tax rolls as well as “provide some stability” for the neighborhood.

The county has retained one acre at the north end of the property for future needs such as a possible courthouse annex. The 3.08-acre site was sold to Milestone Ventures by the county for $100,000.

Jones School served elementary school students on the city’s West Side until 2001, when Greencastle Community School Corporation opened Deer Meadow Primary School and realigned its elementaries into two K-2 primary schools (Deer Meadow and Ridpath) and Tzouanakis Intermediate School for grades 3-5.

After Watson’s motion for approval, commission members Tim Trigg, Mike Murphy, Bill Dory, Mark Hammer, Doug Wokoun, Eric Wolfe, J.D. Miller, Jessica Hartman, Welker and Lewis all voted in favor of the rezoning.

The meeting was the last for Murphy who has sold his house and will be relocating to the Canton, Ohio, area, he said.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: