Ground broken at Gypsy Hill Place

STAUNTON – The groundbreaking ceremony for Gypsy Hill Place was complete, yet four of the Staunton City Council members who used to go to the old Robert E. Lee High School on Churchville Avenue lingered on what used to be the football field to talk about their memories inside the building behind them.

Mayor Lacy King recalled going to school with Councilman Dickie Bell, both graduating in the class of 1965. Councilwoman Carolyn Dull graduated in 1969 and Ophie Kier in 1970. They shared fond memories and good times, King said, recalling two undefeated football teams, as well as four of his old girlfriends, former classmates, teachers and trips to the principal’s office.

“I guess the best way I could sum it up is I’d come by this place all the time, and every time I do, I look up on the hill and see that building and another memory, or another time, starts me thinking about it,” King said. “Just to see it sit there empty, I’d just keep saying, ‘I wish we could get something done with that place.’ ”

And now they are.

In the next four months, the 110,000 square foot building, constructed in 1926 of solid steel and concrete, and expanded in 1952, will be gutted while remaining substantially the same on the outside. The $22 million project will include 70 residential housing units for seniors, the Staunton Senior Center, the ShenanArts Performance and Education Center, as well as a restaurant/dining room.

J.P. Williamson, a founding partner with Octagon Partners of Charlottesville, who is developing the old school property and specializes in adaptive reuse projects, said the building would likely be complete within the first three months of 2010, and is “basically being rebuilt from the inside out.” Octagon purchased the building in June 2008.

Williamson said the bleachers will get a cosmetic facelift, and there will be some new stormwater practices on the outside. The old windows and door openings will stay also, but inside is where the majority of the changes are taking place, with all new electrical, mechanical and plumbing features, with high efficiency heating and cooling. The corridors, classroom configuration and auditorium location will stay the same also.

It is being financed through a combination of traditional financing and tax credits, with Octagon having secured $2.1 million in New Market Tax Credits through Hampton Roads Ventures, which goes into the project as equity to help attract the debt financing, according to Robert Jenkins, Hampton Roads Ventures president, with United Bank providing the remaining money. State and federal historic tax credits are also being used.

Bill Hamilton, economic development director, called it one of the most complicated projects in the city’s history with a private developer, a non-profit theater group and senior center, the lender and New Market Tax Credits.

“It’s not just preserving a historic building, but it’s taking it into the future with green technology,” Hamilton said.

He expects it to be an economic benefit to the city and sees it as an anchor for its west-end.

“You will see people enjoying this building every day and every night with the activities that will be in here,” Hamilton said.

The converted school, which served as the city’s primary high school until 1984 – after that, housing a foreign language school and the Guardian Angel Regional Catholic School – is likely to see some of its old students living in the residential units once they are ready.

“I guess I’ll go on ahead and make a prediction,” King said. “I would imagine that once these residential units get built, I imagine you’ll see some Lee High alumni filling them. That’s kind of a turnaround for them. What goes around comes around.”