This is the only way out of out oppressive economic and consumer realities of 2023.
We have to figure this out ourselves and create our own way. These legacy corporations and Wall Street have it out for the average consumer. We are fucked if we don’t take things into our own hands.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 50 | March 13, 2023 3:05 PM |
I guess you do need a couple of million dollars to succeed these days.
What an inspiring story for the young and rich!
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 3, 2023 5:58 AM |
Yes but if you can get the 100k together the 2m is probably a loan.
But if people pooled their money they can do this a lot easier that trying to outbid 20 people with all cash and 100k over asking for a 1bath ranch.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 3, 2023 6:10 AM |
You got to live the trolls that come in and insist we have to keep the status quo and there is no hope.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 3, 2023 6:10 AM |
Over $2m for 31 apts is about $65,000 per apt.. that's pretty good.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | March 3, 2023 6:13 AM |
I agree with you, OP.
They basically formed an investment group.
Good for them!
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 3, 2023 6:23 AM |
I don’t want to live in Miss Dineen’s homeroom
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | March 3, 2023 6:27 AM |
You can’t sit around waiting on Superman is the point here.
There is not enough competition and not enough regular people taking action and starting business or endeavors that will later become businesses.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | March 3, 2023 6:35 AM |
r4 u forgot the reno fee, hoa fees, property taxes, insurance
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | March 3, 2023 6:39 AM |
My father grew up about 2 towns over. It's a shitty area.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | March 3, 2023 6:42 AM |
Millennials are in their 40s now. They’re adults. Why is this shocking?
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 3, 2023 8:53 AM |
BecUse it’s not a blood sucking conglomerate for once which everyone is waiting to build enough housing. If the can’t gouge they won’t build. Which creates these shortages.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | March 3, 2023 8:56 AM |
Housing costs should be about half of what they are because there is just not enough stock. It’s that simple. We have to build our way out of this.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | March 3, 2023 8:57 AM |
Meh. Of course three straight white guys were able to raise the money and get tax credits to purchase and renovate two schools to help gentrify a bad neighborhood swarming with idiot trash. Had some POCs tried that, they would've been discouraged from doing so, denied a loan due to poor credit, or squeezed out of the project by white investors looking to appeal to white, upper, middle class yuppies. Call me when some brown people manage to do this in a real neighborhood of New York City or even second tier Boston. East Coast cities with real property values and interest not third tier Philly or boring ass Connecticut.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | March 3, 2023 9:17 AM |
R11 asked what I was wondering. What's so noteworthy about them being millennials that it leads the headline?
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | March 3, 2023 9:18 AM |
One of the millennials is named Jesse Wig. Perhaps he needed more space for his lace-fronts.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | March 3, 2023 9:52 AM |
Jesse Wig looks like an enthusiastic fuck.
Homestead is a shitty area, 7 miles from downtown Pittsburgh built around the former Homestead Mine (the famous Homestead Strike of 1892.) Currently, single-family houses range from $30,000s to mid-$200,000s, with half under $150,000.
The project though sounds very good, and preserves one of a relatively small number of historic buildings of any quality or interest. I don't fault the developers for seizing an opportunity, and they appear to have been sensitive to maintaining some of the integrity of the spaces internally - not just the historic preservation tax credits that apply in this case only to exterior work.
It's too bad there are not good mechanisms to allow community organizations to pair with developers in taking on such projects. Obviously it's a complicated thing not without risks, but it would be good to involve more people with an owner-resident stake.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | March 3, 2023 10:35 AM |
[quote] They basically formed an investment group.
This is what Koreans do, and have always done.
Have you ever noticed entire blocks of cities owned by Koreans and filled with Korean businesses?
It's because they have been doing this for decades, and that's how they have become real estate rich in the United States.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | March 3, 2023 11:03 AM |
Here's what greedy real estate developers and house flippers don't understand.
Many people aren't looking to get rich off of real estate.
We're just looking for a place to live and call home. The way that Americans have done for hundreds of years prior.
But greedy pig real estate developers, agents, and house flippers are only about buying and selling for profit, and driving up real estate prices.
It's not about finding a home. It's not about building a community.
Which is why life in the United States today sucks.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | March 3, 2023 11:05 AM |
R19, all true. There is, though, a further consideration that makes room for flippers and developers.
Buyers whose primary intent is to have a home for themselves shoulder some of the blame in insisting not simply on move-in condition but on a catalogue of "must haves" and finish requirements. The "House Hunters" who want everything bright, shiny, new, and in the color and countertop material and hardware finish of their choice create a role for flippers and developers, and too often one that achieves only a surface level of shine in order to maximize profit.
If you buy a house with 1930s metal kitchen cabinets busted up and broken down, layered in decades of cooking grease and rust and grime; or you "need" a tiny bedroom turned into a walk-in closet because of your shoe addiction; or you "need" the bathtub replaced with a glass shower enclosure and all the tiles and fixtures while at it...any of these things cost money and some know-how or patience. Buyers are dumber than ever in wanting more than they can afford and lacking any understanding of finding a house they can live with, a house that doesn't require > $200,000 of magical Property Brothers' money to make their silk purse from a sow's ear. Buyers on tight budgets often want all the coats rolled into a mortgage and lack cash to fund their renovations.
Flippers and developers, however good or bad, however driven by $ above altruism flourish because buyers allow them to do it, even insist on it.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | March 3, 2023 12:38 PM |
This is an interesting story but I'd be shocked if quality construction was involved.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | March 3, 2023 12:44 PM |
My old elementary school and my old middle school were both turned into apartment buildings over a decade ago.
The funny thing is, they look like high schools on the outside but fancy apartment buildings inside.
And of course the community around them could never afford to rent an apartment in them or buy a condo.
I also grew up near an absolutely massive high school (better looking than any school I went to on the outside) that was closed before I was born, it was empty for decades until someone turn it into a beautiful retirement residence. That one, however, is relatively affordable to live in.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | March 3, 2023 12:58 PM |
Cool idea! Good for them, for thinking outside the box to solve a problem instead of sitting around and complaining.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | March 3, 2023 1:04 PM |
This has happened in my town, but unfortunately it's greedy pig developers selling to the highest bidder.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | March 3, 2023 1:10 PM |
Millenials are going to have to start thinking of new solutions forward for themselves and the generations younger than themselves.
It's becoming clearer that the two garbage generations before them think only of themselves!
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | March 6, 2023 11:59 AM |
"Housing costs should be about half of what they are because there is just not enough stock. It’s that simple. We have to build our way out of this."
Do you really believe that? What is the basis of your statement.
Did you confuse affordable housing with housing in general?
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | March 6, 2023 12:03 PM |
Who wants to live in a school?
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | March 6, 2023 12:06 PM |
This needs to happen more often.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | March 6, 2023 1:43 PM |
These apartments are not cheap. $1400 for a one bedroom apartment plus utilities etc. is insane. What's so special about this project? Three millennials saw an opportunity to make some money and transformed a former school into an overpriced apartment building. $600 is a fair price for a one bedroom apartment. I would be impressed if they offered affordable housing for their community.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | March 6, 2023 3:13 PM |
Not a great location for the Pittsburgh area. Far from everything and not a well regarded area. But maybe their renters are not from Pittsburgh?
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | March 6, 2023 3:29 PM |
[quote]$600 is a fair price for a one bedroom apartment.
Fair? I will say that $600 is a fucking great price for a one-bedroom apartment even in shitty Homestead which is far 0ñfrom a desirable market. Nevermind a in a newly renovated historic building.
The U.S. average for a one-bedroom apartment in June 2022 was $1876, up 23.9% from June 2020.
The average for the Pittsburgh metro area is $1570, again for a one-bedroom. [above stats via Realtor com]
Via Zumper.com, based on very low data/availability...
[quote]As of February 26, 2023, the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Homestead, PA is $883. This is a 33% decrease compared to the previous year.
The last year that average one-bedroom rents in the U.S. were as low as $602 was in 2000.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 31 | March 6, 2023 4:58 PM |
Many of these old schools are loaded with asbestos. They don't address that in this article (I only skimmed). $100,000 may not have been such a bargain once remediation costs are factored.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | March 6, 2023 6:51 PM |
gentrification is pc now?
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | March 6, 2023 8:55 PM |
r25 original ideas don't seem to be their thing.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | March 6, 2023 9:05 PM |
Build a 31-noose gallows and drag the board of Blackrock in
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | March 6, 2023 9:12 PM |
Wow. Like living in a high school. Wheee!
Carrie's never around when you really need her.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | March 6, 2023 9:18 PM |
They kept making plans to do that with our schools and they always fell through which is too bad because then they just tore them down. Our Junior high school was in the Guinness book because it had three or four levels and each back door opened at ground level. Would have made a great apt. bldg.
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | March 6, 2023 9:20 PM |
LOL - this has nothing to do with them being Millennials or oppressive financial realities of 2023 or any other year.
It was what any real estate developer might do with such a property.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | March 6, 2023 9:52 PM |
If I had money or close lesbian friends I could rely on, I’d do this and a female-only commune and safe house. Maybe with permaculture walls.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | March 8, 2023 3:39 PM |
Over 20 years ago I found a school in New England that had my cousin’s last name on it. It had been turned into condos. And not by millennials. By boomers. It’s not a new thing, OP.
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | March 8, 2023 3:50 PM |
I agree with the poster upthread that said this is gentrification and it’s a shame. Homestead is largely populated by African Americans and has a long and rich AA history associated with it. The oldest African American Masonic Lodge is here. It was also home to the Homestead Grays, a negro league baseball team. And, along come some millennial dudebros who are given an opportunity that many AAs in Homestead aren’t given. The dudebros have money thrown at them to do the barest of bare renovations to make a school into an apartment building. Just looking at the layout, they pretty much didn’t anything to make it seem like an apartment vs. a school. And the rents aren’t cheap either.
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | March 8, 2023 5:00 PM |
R41 I hear what you're saying re: gentrification. Seen this happen in my own city. It's always these smiling white guys who seem super sincere. They either know exactly what they're doing (playing the money/investor/"Monopoly" game and pushing poor minority neighborhoods out) or they don't (they didn't think that deep into it because they are in an insulated, privileged place). I'm guessing the former.
On to the solution: full equity of investment in this building from the cultural communities that have existed in this neighborhood for years. Equity in representation on the board (I'm hoping there is a board structure somewhere here for the tenants' sakes). Next steps to the problem of resources: an on-site childcare center, workspaces you can "check out" for working remote, on-site food growing. Other on-site resources (like the gym equipment they mentioned). You get the idea. More options in the building so residents don't have to drive. Speaking of cars:
People don't understand how an apartment building affects the neighborhood around it. Especially depending on the vacancy length. Yes this was a high school, so of course it was a physically busy area (pickups & dropoffs. Tons of students out walking. But when did the school close? Maybe the neighborhood has been quiet for decades or just a few years. We just had a developer propose an apartment building of this size beer built on a vacant lot three blocks from us in 2021. Neighborhood was NOT pleased. To suddenly have 35 more people/ family units living in a very dense old neighborhood? It was just unfathomable. The amount of money this city would have had to spend to upgrade utilities at AND around the site was outrageous. City would have had to dig up and upgrade seven city blocks to upgrade just the water & waste mains (which are over 100 years old in this neighborhood) and that's just one of many factors.
Also just giving my own perspective on the physical building: I have a lot of maintenance/custodial experience including a recent painting job in my old grade school a couple summers ago. It was one of about ten new schools built in my city in the 1930s-40s. The way they built these municipal buildings back then...some of them are just about indestructible. In my old school they still had the "fallout shelter" signs in the lower level 😂 But seriously, they had high quality standards for these buildings. Nothing looks old or worn out. Aside from removing harmful shit like asbestos, I think school buildings of this era can be a very good reuse of space, especially considering the amount of already- there shared resource spaces like the library, music rehearsal rooms and practice rooms, gym and sports spaces, a performance space. Office spaces. It's kind of a no-brainer for adding equitable social housing in communities of any size that have buildings like this.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | March 8, 2023 6:43 PM |
[quote] If I had money or close lesbian friends I could rely on, I’d do this and a female-only commune and safe house
I'd sue you for discriminating against men.
You can't do that.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | March 8, 2023 10:29 PM |
R43 MRAs are so funny and cringefail. just wet cat men honestly
sidebar remembering the early 2010s when ‘not all men’ was broadly acknowledged as an unproductive way to react to feminist critique. everytime i see those ‘criticising all men is a very sad and hag like behaviour and you're just a mean terven cat lady if you do that :(’ type of posts i feel an ache for that moment in my bones.
like I’m an adult lesbian, I don’t need to vent on the internet about my experiences, I have the autonomy to create my own conditions of living. but I feel so sad about the young women who are trying to make sense of why they feel like shit in a digital world that clearly sees the fight for womens' rights as something passé and embarrassing. makes me mad lol
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | March 10, 2023 2:16 AM |
Let me fix OP’s headline
CAPITALISTS REHAB OLD BUILDING WITH GOAL OF INFLATING, EXPLOITING RENTAL MARKET, PRICING OUT WORKING CLASS
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | March 10, 2023 2:33 AM |
Squatting and occupying instead of buying the place might have made it more punk rock.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 46 | March 10, 2023 9:58 PM |
oh I thought you were all adamant that we waste all our money on avo toast and artisanal coffee🙄
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | March 13, 2023 2:05 PM |
It's a good idea, but I hope they didn't use SVB for their loans.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | March 13, 2023 2:30 PM |
R27 people who don't want to be homeless.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | March 13, 2023 2:40 PM |
It's a beautiful old school. I love the building. It would be a great place to have an apartment or condo...with the interesting character. Remember how lofts were probably thought to be "ugh" at first....an old. dirty and cold warehouse? Who could live there. Now, they are one of the most desirable and expensive places to live. I hope these homes are kept at an affordable level, so this gives the average person looking for a place to live a chance.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | March 13, 2023 3:05 PM |
