Developer asks city for help converting Stevens School

Ty Jackson wants 'partnership' with the city to help provide affordable housing

Contractor Tyrone Jackson hopes to convert the abandoned Stevens Elementary School into 18 to 20 affordable apartments in the near future.

Jackson briefed Sterling City Council on his plan during the council’s regular meeting Tuesday (Nov. 8.) Jackson is already involved in a similar project converting an abandoned school building in Brush into apartments. He told City Council that he has construction crews available that could work on both sites simultaneously.

Jackson presented the council with a list of seven requests to help make the Sterling project viable. Those are a property tax exemption for 10 years, expedited free building permits, a partnership to help secure grants, approval of a “phased development,” free upgrades to water and sewer if needed, free water and sewer utilities for two years, and a mobile onsite security unit to prevent further damage to the building.

Jackson said the property tax exemption, utility upgrades and service charge waivers would be necessary to make the project financially viable early on. The utility upgrades would only be asneeded and only for the school building itself. In addition, Jackson wants to access grant funding that can be used to provide affordable housing, but only through a partnership with a municipality.

“There are grants that only the city can get, and I propose that the city have a funneling mechanism to forward the money into the construction account for the project that I control,” Jackson said. “I imagine this to be something like an account called ‘Friends of the Stevens School rebuilding.’ This might also be possible through other nonprofits in town.”

The “phased development” plan would be necessary, Jackson said, so tenants could move in to finished parts of the project while other parts still are being converted. This would mean sending inspectors out numerous times as work progresses, rather than just once. That way, Jackson said, the project could begin generating revenue as soon as possible.

Jackson told the council the classrooms and hallways would yield about 15 apartments of roughly 800 square feet apiece. Hallways would be closed off and that space used for bathrooms and kitchens in the new apartments. Converting office and other space could yield several more apartments.

Plans for the use of the gymnasium space still are unclear, Jackson said. It’s possible that space, too, could become living quarters, but because the school was listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings in 2015, he’s limited on how he can change the appearance of the building.

Areas around the school could be used to build even more living space, Jackson said.

While the council made no commitment during the meeting, council members appeared receptive to Jackson’s plan.

Built in 1952, the school was part of a major expansion of classroom space that included Hagen Elementary and Campbell Elementary. Stevens was closed in 2007 when the district consolidated its classroom space with the construction of Ayers Elementary in the south end of Sterling. Sexson Elementary school also was closed and later demolished, and Hagen Elementary was converted into the school district’s headquarters building.

The school district sold the Stevens building for $1 to Bernice Mills in 2014. Mills said she intended to convert the building into either a music school or an art school. The building sustained heavy damage in 2017 when vandals broke in and smashed windows, doors, toilets and other items, and spray-painted graffiti on the brick walls. It has since been boarded up.