Remodeling work on the former Lincoln School that will turn classrooms into living space is still on track to begin before the the year’s out.
The project passed another hurdle this week with the Shawano Plan Commission’s approval of a site plan.
Commonwealth Development Corp., of Fond du Lac, plans to construct 16 apartments in the building plus an additional eight cottage units elsewhere on the property. They would be two- to three-bedroom, low-income homes. The exterior of Lincoln School will remain the same after the conversion.
The site plan included one change to the original proposal, relocating the cottage units to the north to preserve the building’s historic profile.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said there are still some details not included in the site plan that need to be worked out, including landscaping and lighting.
The plan is to construct the cottages in the spring of next year, after the interior remodeling of the school has been completed. The project is expected to cost about $4 million.
The project was awarded $2.86 million over the next 10 years through a Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) program designed to increase affordable housing statewide.
Commonwealth Development will retain the property in its portfolio and provide on-site management. The property would also be inspected once a week by one of the company’s regional managers to ensure it is being kept up.
The company, 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 last year.
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.
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