Work has started to convert the old Park Place School into an apartment complex. This is a view of the school from ML King and Fairview Avenue. Click on photo to enlarge.
photo by Irby Park
Historic preservation developer Thomas Johnson has acquired the long-vacant Park Place School and said he will convert it into 16 apartments.
Mr. Johnson paid $1 for the three-story brick school that has been vacant since 1956.
The school, built in 1924, is located on MLK Boulevard near Central Avenue.
The Urban League had planned to remodel the building, putting its offices on the main floor and having residential on the top two floors.
Mr. Johnson said the Lyndhurst Foundation bought the building for the Urban League. But it was found the cost was prohibitive after plans were drawn up by architect Frank McDonald.
Mr. Johnson said he plans to spend about $1.2 million on the project and will do part of the work himself. He said he and his son and another workman have already started redoing windows at the former school.
He said the school is built like a fortress with a concrete foundation, floors and even a concrete roof.
Mr. Johnson said solar panels will be placed on the roof to provide solar heating. He said there will be heat pumps for each unit under the floors for backup heat and for air conditioning.
He said he does not plan to change the interior walls, keeping the classrooms as they are.
He said the building had wooden floors, but they have rotted. In their place will go marble floors similar to ones he put in his St. Johns Hotel development on South Market Street.
Mr. Johnson said the building features "big wide hallways."
He said he has applied for financing and believes it will come through in about two weeks.
Mr. Johnson said he will subcontract the electrical, plumbing and engineering, while doing other parts of the job himself.
He said the steel-sash windows will be reconditioned and insulated glass placed back in them.
Mr. Johnson said the building has had some brick falling off the front, and that apparently led some to believe it was deteriorating all over. But he said it is still remarkably sound.
He said after the Urban League pulled out, the Lyndhurst Foundation asked Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise to seek proposals from developers.
He submitted a bid along with an accounting firm that wanted to put offices there and Mainstream Construction, which did the railroad building on South Market. Mr. Johnson's proposal was chosen.
He said the city had sold the building to the Cavalier Corporation, which apparently used it for its engineering department.
The building has some 30,000 square feet.
This is a view of the old Park Place School from Fairview Avenue, a block from Central. Click on photo to enlarge.
photo by Irby Park