MILWAUKEE — Edison School Apartments had its official grand opening on Thursday.
Gorman & Company, in partnership with other local developers and organizations including, Cupid Development, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), and the State Historic Preservation Office, transformed North Milwaukee High School into affordable housing.
The project costed $25.5 million.
The redevelopment features 63 apartments for seniors and 12 newly built three-bedroom townhomes on the property for young families. The senior apartments are all located in the former school and the townhomes were built across the parking lot.
Martha Smith was one of the first residents at the Edison School Apartments to move in. The building is now designated a Historic Landmark.
“I think the community was ready for something different,” Smith said.
She said she’s grateful for a brand-new safe place to live that she can afford and happy to see positive change in the area.
“For one thing, as long as they stay vacant, they can be vandalized and all that, why not put people in it,” she said.
Smith said that this is a time in her life when she and so many of her peers want to scale back, but not leave their neighborhoods.
“I think it’s a good thing because we have so many elderly people that are in houses right now and apartments would be better,” Smith said.
Ted Matkom is the Wisconsin Market President for Gorman & Company. He said there’s a trend of seniors selling their homes so they can downsize, which gives young families a chance at home ownership.
“Those homes are affordable, and so someone can come in, fix up the home, get it at a fair price and put a new family in there,” Matkom said. “You are stabilizing the neighborhood with home ownership, you are turning over the population in the neighborhood, but then keeping the long history that the seniors represent in the community by putting them in an affordable home in the school,” he continued.
Matkom said he believes this is a unique development for many reasons.
“We took 63 apartments in the school that we created for seniors and then along the street we added 12 townhomes, three-bedroom townhomes that are for families, so it’s great that we have this intergenerational mix of people,” he said.