RICHMOND, Va. — Enterprise Community Development has completed construction at Baker Senior Apartments in Richmond’s North Jackson Ward neighborhood.
The project was a redevelopment projects that transformed the former Baker School, originally built in 1939, into 50 units of seniors housing. Development estimates were $15.8 million.
Project partners include Virginia Housing and Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority (RRHA). Enterprise worked with RRHA to acquire the property and leveraged Low-Income Housing Tax Credits; state and federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits; tax credit equity provided by Enterprise Housing Community Investments and Sugar Creek Capital; and other state, local and private resources.
“We deeply believe in what this neighborhood is about. Jackson Ward is one of three Black Wall Streets in America, and then the highway was built and cut the community in half, and what was a place of pride where freed slaves and Northern black solders settled to create a life and a home for themselves changed,” says Brian McLaughlin, president of Enterprise. “Today is not a moment to look behind us; it’s a moment to look ahead. We have a new history we need to continue to write. It’s a history that speaks about pride and is grounded in the notion of neighborhood, as a steppingstone for growth, for life.”
Baker Senior Apartments is the bookend of a three-phase project — one of the first in the country to transfer HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program to an offsite location, which allowed residents to move into new housing and closer to amenities and services.
The three phases included the adaptive reuse of the former Highland Park Public School into 77 units for seniors in 2016, and the 2020 completion of the mixed-income and mixed-use infill development in the National Historic Landmark neighborhood of Jackson Ward known as The Rosa, which features 72 homes for low-income seniors. Enterprise and RRHA’s investment in The Rosa also leveraged the development of the Van de Vyver Apartment Homes, featuring 82 mixed-income apartments, including 36 affordable units designated for workforce housing, and nearly 6,000 square feet of retail space.
“Baker School has been a part of this community for more than 80 years. Its renovation has served to eliminate blight while simultaneously preserving the rich history of the building and the Jackson Ward community in which it resides,” says Stacey Daniels-Fayson, interim CEO of Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority.
The architect for Baker Senior Apartments was Commonwealth Architects. The general contractor was Hamel Builders.