$4.7 Million Renovation Will Turn Old School Into Housing for Seniors;
Project in Bristol Marks Winston-Salem Developer’s Return To Virginia

The Landmark Group of Winston-Salem has announced plans to convert an old school in Bristol, Va., into 41 units of housing for seniors at a cost of $4.7 million.

Work on the old Douglass School building is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2005 and be completed by year’s end, said Landmark CEO Jim Sari.

The apartments will help the city meet a growing demand for affordable senior housing, according to Dave Baldwin, executive director of the Bristol Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Landmark’s local partner in the project.

“There seems to be a great need for elderly housing in our community,” he said. As part of the plan, the Bristol City Council voted to sell the vacant building for $350,000, then to lend that amount to the developer. The Virginia Housing Development Authority has approved $287,912 in low-income housing tax credits for the project.

“We had an empty building that was in disrepair,” City Manager Paul D. Spangler said in explaining how the plan evolved. “We did another project in another old school building and it filled up nearly the day it opened.”

Bristol’s earlier school conversion was by Regency Development Associates Inc., based in Raleigh. Rex Todd, now a principal with The Landmark Group, had been with Regency at the time. Todd’s connection to Bristol brought Landmark into the picture, and with local support, Landmark structured a deal that was approved by the City Council.

“The developers, by virtue of their profession, have experience in putting together financing packages and getting construction done within a set time frame,” Baldwin said. “The community gets the benefit.”

The Bristol project marks a return to Virginia by Landmark, which specializes in historic preservation and adaptive reuse. Its last Virginia project was completed in the mid-1990s, an old school in Glasgow that was converted into an apartment complex.

“One of our growth objectives is to target economically challenged areas of rural southwestern Virginia that are rich in history but need help putting their old schools and textile plants back into use,” Sari said.

Landmark, in partnership with local governments, housing authorities and private investors, has developed more than $150 million worth of projects in the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia. The projects have awakened downtowns, revitalized inner city neighborhoods, restored rural communities, built tax bases and spurred economic growth.

In September, the Council of State Community Development Agencies cited Landmark’s work in rural South Carolina in giving the South Carolina State Community Development Block Grant Program its 2004 President’s Award for Innovation.

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CONTACT: Mike Massoglia, 336.723.5315