Two senior housing complexes get total of $16M in upgrades
Hoover Place reopens; Grand Place nearly done.
A nonprofit organization that owns nine affordable senior living communities in the Dayton region has finished a multimillion-dollar renovation of one of its West Dayton properties and is nearly finished with a major rehab of another.
“This is our passion, this is what gets us excited — which is to go into tired communities and try to refresh them to provide a dignified living space for the seniors who live there,” said Matt Rule, senior vice president of housing devel- opment and asset management with National Church Residences.
National Church Resi- dences spent more than $9 million renovating Hoover Place, which is a 144-unit apartment complex at 5407 Hoover Ave., just east of the Ohio 49 connector.
Rule said the apartments, built in 1999, were worn-down and National Church Residences set about refreshing the com- plex after acquiring it from St. Mary Development Corp in 2017.
Hoover Place is a three- story, low-rise complex that offers independent living for low-income residents 55 and older, and its amenities include a com- munity room, private patio, fitness center and walking paths.
A grand reopening of the apartment complex took place last week. Construc- tion on the project began in May 2022.
National Church Res- idences has had a pres- ence in the Dayton region for more than a decade, and the organization now owns 10 local senior living communities that have more than 800 units, Rule said. Nine of the communities offer affordable senior housing, while one in Xenia is market-rate housing.
The National Church Residences investments come at a time when a variety of local leaders and organizations have prioritized housing as a human right, saying the Dayton region suffers a shortage of quality affordable housing, including a deficit of units for seniors.
The Hoover Place project received state tax credits, plus financing from multi- ple sources.
Hoover Place is part of the Hoover Senior Com- munity, which was con- structed in the late 1990s and has 281 apartments for seniors, said Wes Young, executive vice president of St. Mary Development Corp.
St. Mary Development tried to renovate Hoover Place in 2015 and 2016, but those efforts were not successful and the orga- nization sold several of its properties to National Church Residences, includ- ing Hoover Place, Grand Place and Huffman Place.
National Church Resi- dences is nearly done renovating the Grand Place apartments, which is an income-restricted, afford- able apartment community for seniors age 55 and older.
Grand Place, located at 729 W. Grand Ave. near the Gem City Market, has about 64 apartments. About $7.4 million has been invested into the property.
Construction started in March 2023 and should wrap up in July, assuming the project does not run into any setbacks.
Barbara Wright, who moved into Hoover Place late last year, said the place where she lived was shut- ting down and she and some of her neighbors needed to relocate. She said they are very fortunate that Hoover Place became their new home.
“The property is beautiful, compared to where we came from,” she said. “We are very happy with where we are now, we feel very comfortable, we feel secure and we’re just loving it to death.”