Seniors Housing Business is the magazine that helps you navigate the evolution of the seniors housing industry.
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February/March 2017 n Seniors Housing Business 303 | 773-0436 lantz-boggio.com DESIGNING a New Generation of Senior Environments Hospital in Illinois is Reborn On Jan. 31, the former St. Charles Hospital began its new life as Aurora St. Charles Senior Living, a community of 60 affordable senior apartments in Aurora, Ill. At the ribbon cutting, nearly a dozen people who had been born in the hospital were among the celebrants of the redevelopment. "We love adaptive reuse," says Steve Rappin, owner and presi- dent of locally based Evergreen Real Estate Services, which rede- veloped the property. Ties that bind Originally built in 1932, the hospital is located near the heart of Aurora, a city of about 100,000 that is approximately 40 miles west of Chicago. "Being near restaurants and stores and emer- gency care — that affects the lives of all these seniors," says Rappin. The location also benefits seniors by allowing them to stay close to social networks and ser- vices they have depended on for years. "A lot of them grew up in this town," says Rappin. Many residents of Aurora St. Charles Senior Living have family mem- bers living nearby. By choosing to remain in Aurora rather than move elsewhere, a large number of residents at the newly opened senior apartment community are able to consult with doctors they have seen for years. "It is a continuity with the fabric of their lives," he explains In the 1960s, the hospital was converted into a nursing home. "There was never significant investment in redevelopment," says Rappin. In 2010, the nursing home closed. By the time Evergreen began its rehabilitation of the vacant building, the property needed a lot of work. "It had broken windows and broken pipes," recalls Rappin. "That's the nature of these his- toric buildings. There's typi- cally something that blows your budget." Tax credits to the rescue It cost $24 million to develop the 60 seniors apartments, or roughly $400,000 per unit. Had it not been for government subsi- dies, the project would not have penciled out for the developer. "That is typically not a develop- ment cost that works for market- rate seniors housing," empha- sizes Rappin. Because the building is listed on the National Register of His- toric Places, the redevelopment qualified for funding through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, in addition to federal historic reha- bilitation tax credits and state historic tax credits. The redevelopment also received $3 million through the River Edge Redevelopment Zone, created by local offi- cials. The Illi- nois Housing D e v e l o p m e n t Authority also allocated fed- eral HOME funds to the project. Just like with rehabs of his- toric school buildings, local officials were eager to assist with the redevel- opment of the former hospital. "Everybody wants to see this beautiful historic building saved and they are willing to put resources into it," says Rappin. The new senior apartments opened in December and two months later, 33 of the 60 apart- ments had leased — a very fast lease-up for a seniors property. Evergreen has not yet con- verted a school building into affordable seniors housing, but it is looking forward to the opportunity. "There are excess schools out there that need adaptive reuse," says Rappin. "We will con- tinue to focus on historic rehab opportunities." — Bendix Anderson St. Charles Hospital was built in 1932 in Aurora, Ill. The property is now a seniors housing community known as Aurora St. Charles.