February 22,2008

(Emily Rasinski/P-D)

Residential developers usually build subdivisions or apartment buildings and move on to the next project. But the Irving School Group has a greater mission — helping to revive a neighborhood.

The group — a joint partnership of four companies — is building affordable rental houses and apartments in an area of St. Louis many people had given up on. It is turning the former Irving School at 3829 North 25th Street into 33 apartments, renovating nine two- and four-family apartment buildings on scattered sites nearby, and constructing seven new single-family homes in the Salisbury Park neighborhood.

The new houses are nearing completion, the renovated multifamily buildings will be finished in the coming months and the school conversion will be completed by the end of the year.

The Irving School Group is following the lead of Better Living Communities, a nonprofit organization formed by Bethlehem Lutheran Church that built 38 units in an area not long ago filled with abandoned and dilapidated buildings.

The $19.5 million Irving School project has expanded the redevelopment from a nine-block area to 12 blocks.

The companies — ND Consulting, Patrick Development Co., Person and Associates and Wilmore Management Co. — are behind the project.

Crews are doing a gut rehab on the historic school built in 1871.

"We'll put in all new walls, new floor joists, new roofs, new trusses and just kind of rebuild the building from the outside-in, which is a little different than how it was built originally," said Ken Nuernberger, principal with ND Consulting.

The structure had been so neglected it even had a tree growing out of one side of it.

"We were one of the first green buildings in St. Louis," quipped Tim Wolf, president of Patrick Development Co., which will manage the rentals.

Architects are Garan Miller and Jeff Brambila. The lender is Centerline Capital Group of New York City.

The project presented two major challenges to contractor E.M. Harris Construction, said Kevin Buchek, the company's executive vice president.

The first one calls for preserving the historic character of the building to comply with rules for receiving historic tax credits. Then there are the structural issues.

"You've got roofs that have caved in and you've got floor joists that have caved in, so you're trying to maintain the existing building while adding new structural elements such as floor joists, roof joists and trusses," Buchek said.

But it's not a problem for Harris, Buchek said. "It's something we're very familiar with. We do tons of this kind of work."

Renovating neighborhoods is nothing new to the development group either, said Wolf. Patrick Development has done several projects in north St. Louis County.

"This is our fourth affordable project, and it's our hope to continue to do additional projects in the same neighborhood," Wolf said.

Tenants must earn 60 percent of the median income in the St. Louis area to live in an Irving School apartment or house. For a couple, that's $34,000, Wolf said. Average monthly rents will be $450 for one-bedroom apartments, $500 for two-bedroom apartments and $625 for three-bedroom houses.

When completed, there will be 12 three-bedroom apartments, nine two-bedroom apartments, 33 one-bedroom apartments and seven three-bedroom houses.

The neighborhood already is bounding back, the developers said.

"The Lutherans started it with their commitment," Wolf said. "Now there are other developers coming in there, too, looking to do some things.

"The next step is looking to build for-sale homes in conjunction with it," Wolf said. "But you really need to stabilize the neighborhood first, and the 100 units between our project and the Better Living Communities', that's happening."

Nuernberger called the response to the rentals so far "incredible."

"Forty-five people have applied, and all there is is a sign and construction," he said. "There is a strong core of people who have connections to the various North Side communities who want to live here."