Second life: Closed Flint elementary building to be turned into senior housing

It's been 15 years since the hallways of Oak School have been filled with the sounds of children.
Since then, the once-bustling red brick school in Flint’s Grand Traverse neighborhood has stood empty, its tall windows covered in boards.
Now, the stately building is getting a second life.
Three years of work by the Flint-based nonprofit Communities First, Inc. to secure federal and state grant funding has resulted in a $5 million project to build 24 apartments for senior housing at the former school at 1000 Oak St.
“It’s very exciting to be able to get the project started,” said Glenn Wilson, president and chief executive officer at Communities First.
In April 2012, the project received $3.7 million in federal grants for the renovations and to subsidize housing at the former school for the next five years. The rest of the funding came from the state.
Communities First, Inc. will work with Connecticut-based New Samaritan Corp. and in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Michigan State Housing Authority, the city of Flint and the Genesee County Land Bank, officials said in a statement.
The new apartment units would be about 540 square feet, complete with a bedroom, living room, bathroom and functioning kitchen, Wilson said. The building would have to remain senior housing for 40 years.
Oak School sits just a few blocks west of downtown, and ideas for reviving it over the years included a mix of office and residential use and community education. A lack of funding has stymied any serious proposals.
“Oak School is a historic property that will be a great new home for seniors right in the heart of downtown,” said Mayor Dayne Walling. “There’s a strong demand for apartments in Flint – especially around downtown. This project will be a great addition to the living options around downtown.”
More than 22,000 Flint residents were at least 55-years-old, according to the 2010 Census.
Construction will take at least a year, Wilson said, and Communities First will take applications for potential residents two months before the project is done. Potential residents must be at least 62-years-old and meet HUD requirements for low income.
The project will be enterprise green communities certified when it is finished and incorporates green building practices for construction and operation, a statement said.
Wilson said the building will have on-site recycling, feature a rain garden, have an area for people to sit outside and will use non-poisonous cleaning materials inside.
“It also will be as energy efficient as you can for an old building like this and keep its historic integrity,” he said.
A community walk-through will take place at 10 a.m., with a groundbreaking to follow at 11 a.m., Friday, Sept. 6.
Parts of the building are believed to date to 1898 and an addition built in 1955 includes a community room and a gym, according to MLive-Flint Journal files.
Formerly a Flint elementary school, the district closed it in 1976 due to declining enrollment and it later was home to Community Mental Health programs.
“Communities First is all about the adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of historic structures and we would be happy to work with other community groups,” Wilson said. “If the Flint Community Schools would like to redevelop schools, we would love to work with them to repurpose schools to a viable use.”
In the last 10 years, the Flint School District has closed more than 20 schools because of declining enrollment, aging facilities and to reduce expenses.
“There are a number of large, vacant school buildings that could become more modern apartments or condominium complexes,” Walling said.
The school district sold a portion of the land that Cody Elementary formerly occupied for $125,000 in June.
District Spokesman Bob Campbell said he doesn’t know if Communities First has contacted the Flint School District about potentially doing a project similar to Oak Street at other shuttered schools.
“As demonstrated with the Cody property, the district would consider any viable proposal for disposing of properties that we currently hold that are no longer being used for school facilities.”