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Three millennials buy abandoned high school, convert it into 31-unit housing
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this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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This is a really cool project, but I can't help but wonder about the numbers. 1,400/month for a 1 bedroom when there are rentals for <1k nearby, closer to Pittsburgh proper. And the same price point will get you a place inside the city, if that's where you work.
would have been nice to see a project like this turn into a co-op instead of trendy market rate rentals.
Yea, this isn't as simple as it appears.
A building like that would have all sorts of remediation challenges, just from sitting vacant for 10 years. I'm surprised it could be remediated without major costs - that's often a big challenge in reusing/repurposing old buildings.
It's not like 3 random dudes bought a building and refurbed it, these guys have the background (and financing), to the tune of 3.3 mil to rehab the place. Just getting it to meet code for a multi-tenant dwelling (instead of a school which is how it was originally zoned), is quite an accomplishment, and could've been enough to stall such a project. I'm impressed - I can only imagine all the potential showstoppers that could've popped up anytime along the way.
To your point about the rental costs, surely their financer(s) had to look at their plans and determine whether it could generate the income necessary to repay the loan.
It would be interesting to see their project plans and get a sense of everything this kind of project encompasses.
One of my dreams is an NGO or government agency that builds high density housing and rents it at cost. Then uses the income and donations to scale the process up until it's a major player in the housing market.
Alas, I do not have access to millions of dollars in funding.
Yeah. Yeah that would actually be really nice and it would save a ton of money. Most people in that situation do want to get functional and live on their own though too, so I would expand it to include nearby housing that's more expensive, more independent, but also in walking distance so they can come back and hang out or get more help when they need to.
Looking at the pictures of the one apartment that they showed, the rent seems pretty reasonable. It would be nice if it was made more affordable to the average person, but it's not crazy expensive either.
The building also has a gym and a common area that do add value to what you get. I imagine the place also had a cafeteria, but it doesn't say what they did with it.
Personally I'd have probably retro fitted it into a server room to help recoup some of the costs.