Tenants have been moving into the Historic Lincoln School Apartments since restoration was completed in September, but on Friday the developer behind the project hosted an official grand opening and ribbon-cutting attended by dozens of community and business leaders.
“This is a way of thanking all the key players that made it happen,” said Louie Lange III, founder of Commonwealth Development Corp. of Fond du Lac.
Commonwealth approached the Shawano School District in 2012 with an offer to purchase the property for renovation into an apartment building that would maintain the historic characteristics of the former Lincoln School at 237 S. Sawyer St. in Shawano.
The School Board agreed to sell the property for $110,000.
It took more than a year after that before Commonwealth was assured of the tax credits and financing to go forward.
Lange said the school district and the city were willing to gamble with Commonwealth and funding going through and allow the property to be tied up in limbo in the interim.
Shawano Mayor Lorna Marquardt said it was a gamble that paid off.
“On behalf of the city of Shawano and its residents, we would like to say a resounding thank you to Commonwealth,” she said. “Thank you for taking this lovely historic building and turning it into a new home for the holidays and many years beyond. Within these walls, there are many lasting memories.”
The ceremony was held in the community room of the apartment building, which used to be the school gymnasium and still retains the basketball hoops and floor markings.
“This is really a wonderful project,” said Deby Dehn, business development officer with Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA).
“I love walking through and seeing the apartments with the high ceilings and all the light flowing in. It’s really, really nice,” she said.
The project will receive $2.86 million over the next 10 years through a WHEDA program designed to increase affordable housing statewide.
The restoration of the former school, named to state and federal historic registers, began in the spring and was completed in September.
It includes 16 apartments in the building, plus an additional eight cottage units constructed on the property. The two-bedroom units are approximately 1,000 to 1,300 square feet, and the three-bedroom units are between 1,200 and 1,600 square feet.
The total cost of the project for both the cottage homes and restoration of Lincoln School was $5.2 million.
As of Friday, all but one of the property’s 24 units had been rented, according to Lange.
The 31,826-square-foot Lincoln School was built in 1924. It was retired in 2010 after Hillcrest Primary School was completed and students were moved there and to the remodeled Olga Brener Intermediate School.
Commonwealth Development, which specializes in housing projects, has done similar renovation projects — including an elementary school in Rhinelander now called the Historic West Elementary Apartments and a maternity ward in Milwaukee that was turned into a 51-unit apartment complex.
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