HomeMy WebLinkAboutdevelopment proposalWestside Lofts
Renovation and Redevelopment
of Westside Junior High School
Executive Summary
The proposed Westside Loft development represents the acquisition and adaptive rehabilitation of
the Historic Westside Junior High School building located at 14', and Marshall Streets in Little
Rock, Arkansas.
Built in 1917, Westside Junior High consists of 89,604 gross square feet of building footprint and
is constructed of masonry and steel reinforced concrete. The school building consists of three
floors and a full basement with a gymnasium located at the center of the building. There is an
adjacent auditorium, which consists of 22,605 square feet, of similar construction type. The entire
Westside property is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The redevelopment of Westside Junior High requires rezoning approval for a Planned Residential
Development (PRD). The building is currently zoned Planned Office Development (POD). Prior
to that, it was zoned R-4. The intended use will be strictly multi -family. The Westside Loft
redevelopment plan calls for 45 apartment units located at the interior of the building with 74
parking spaces located on site, allowing the development better than a 1.5 to 1 parking ratio per
apartment. The building will receive entirely new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems as
well as state of the art fire protection and sprinkler systems. The mix of units will be 12 one
bedroom and 33 two bedroom apartments. All apartment units will be handicap accessible under
"universal design" specifications.
Funding in part for this development will come from the Arkansas Development Finance
Authority in the form of low -to -moderate housing tax credits as well as the utilization of Historic
Preservation Tax Credits from the Federal Government.
The Westside Loft development will be modeled after other previous successful multi -family
adaptive redevelopment projects in Little Rock such as; Kramer School Artists Cooperative,
Block 2 Lofts and Eastside Lofts (formally Eastside High School). A market study specific to this
project currently indicates a need for additional affordable multi -family housing in Little Rock.
The developer of this property will be Vanadis Group, Inc. in cooperation with The Ark
Arkansas. Vanadis Group is the developer for all of the above mentioned rehabilitation efforts.
It should be noted that Westside Junior High received approval for a Conditional Use Permit for
multi -family in 1996. The building was to be the subject of a "single resident occupant"
development applied for by the Volunteers of America. Complete plans and engineering studies
for this development were approved by the City.
It is anticipated that construction on the Westside Loft development would begin in November
2002 with completion in November 2003. The projected development cost is approximately $4.5
million.
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