Jennifer Schaidley of Aurora had a ringside seat Wednesday morning for a ribbon-cutting of a new apartment building she actually moved into in July.
“This is a lot better than Plum Street where I used to live and I’m excited to see this development start to fill up. I want to meet more people,” Schaidley said during the event for the new Fox Valley Apartments development on the campus of the former Lincoln Elementary School at 641 S. Lake St. on Aurora’s West Side.
Officials from the city of Aurora along with representatives from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, West Aurora School District 129, the not-for-profit Visionary Ventures, Cordogan, Clark and Associates Architects, McShane Construction and more welcomed in the development Wednesday which turned an old school site into 36 affordable housing units.
The work renovated the former Lincoln Elementary School, a 39,000-square-foot building originally constructed in 1893, to accommodate 14 apartment units. The school was closed in 2007 due to low enrollment and remained vacant until construction of the apartments began.
Also on the campus, a new two-story, 28,000-square-foot building was constructed to offer 22 additional affordable workforce units.
The development at the old Lincoln School site followed an earlier part of the Fox Valley Apartments project at the former Todd School, 100 Oak Ave., which transformed that early 1900s school building into 11 apartment units and a VNA Health Care clinic for underinsured and uninsured West Aurora School District families.
The renovations at the Lincoln and Todd sites incorporated historical elements from the school buildings, including trim, flooring, chalkboards, windows, doors and locker-lined hallways, officials said.
Clayton Muhammad, chief engagement and equity officer for the city of Aurora, said the city “was happy to reopen Lincoln School, following the first half of the project this past spring” at Todd School, and while only a few have moved in at the Lincoln site so far, “We know it’s going to fill up quickly.”
Repurposing a vacant building, Muhammad said, was an important initiative for the city “given this is affordable housing, which is key.”
He also noted the recent opening of a youth center at the former Emmanuel Lutheran School site last month on Aurora’s East Side.
“We have three formerly shuttered schools which are now open and vibrant with families in two of them. We are excited and we know the need for affordable housing and this helps us close that gap and have more spaces available,” he said. “We’re excited to have families move into a place that, at one time, was teeming with children.”
At the ribbon-cutting event on Wednesday, West Aurora School District Superintendent Michael Smith said developments like the one at the old Lincoln School site are important.
“I love this,” he said. “We’re tremendously supportive of opportunities given to our families that provide stability of housing which, in turn, settles them as we look to come alongside them when they have students coming to our schools. As we grow and develop and transition, I love the partnership we’ve been able to establish with the city of Aurora and these facilities they are breathing new life into.”
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin called the project “another opportunity of partnering with our developers to make sure we get the housing that we need in Aurora for all.”
“We need affordable housing and we need to make sure we provide opportunities for folks who might not have those opportunities and this development does exactly that,” he said.
The crowd at the ribbon-cutting included area residents like Clary Eubanks of Aurora, who said she lives about “five minutes away” from the site.
“I think repurposing a school into apartments – I’m here to see it and so I can tell my daughter,” she said. “It’s a clever idea. It’s awesome.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
