The new apartments at the former Blackbear Bosin Academy, which is nestled in a neighborhood not far from 13th and Woodlawn, are almost ready for 23 renters.
“It’s just a really cool building,” said Tom George, who has redeveloped three other former schools for apartments.
“I’m glad we were able to keep it. I know a lot of other people were looking to tear it down.”
Neighbors initially weren’t happy about his plans, but George said they felt better once they learned there would be only 23 units.
“They were very happy . . . the school gets to stay,” he said. “A lot of people in the neighborhood, they went to school there. Their children went to school there. . . . I was real lucky to get their support.”
Previously, George converted the former Sunnyside Elementary and Kellogg Elementary schools in Wichita and the former Bown-Corby School in Marion.
Blackbear Bosin Academy was built in 1956 as Price Elementary School before being named for the Kiowa and Comanche tribes artist perhaps best known for creating Wichita’s Keeper of the Plains statue. It’s different than George’s other conversions.
“This is more of a modern look. . . . It’s a total different feel. . . . The architecture was so different in that era compared to the early 1900s.
His other conversions were buildings from the early 1900s that had 14-foot ceilings.
This building has more like 8-foot ceilings.
“Economically, it’s got the lower ceilings. It’s how they did it in that era. . . . It should be a very affordable electric bill, which is nice.”
He’s including water, trash and WiFi in the apartment rental prices.
Units, which range from $500 to $1,200, include studio apartments, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
Most of the apartments are former classrooms. Four once were bathrooms. Those have been converted to studios. One apartment is the former boiler room, and there’s one apartment in an out building, which George called “pretty cool.”
“They’re a great value,” he said. “For the money, it’s a bigger unit than what you’ll pay on the market.”
The building is one level with no stairs.
“If you are a little older, it really helps. You don’t have to go up and down stairs.”
There also are ADA units, and George said that “everything is easy access.”
One of the nicest features of the apartments, George said, is there are about 6 1/2 acres of park around the apartments that will remain for tenants and neighbors to use. There won’t be a fence around the property.
There’s also a dog run and on-site laundry, and the apartments will have a replica Keeper of the Plains statue by artist Jennie Becker.
‘Preserved in time’
George had the 20,000-square-foot building put on the National Register of Historic Places to protect the property and qualify for historic tax credits.
“It costs a lot to renovate these old buildings.”
He said it would have been cheaper to raze the building and start from scratch.
“But once you get them all renovated and with this being historic, it’s preserved in time.”
The tax credits are “what makes a project like this doable,” George said. “Kansas has a great program for that. There’s no way you could develop this building without doing that.”
The more than $2 million project is eligible for between about $300,000 and $600,000 in credits, George said. He won’t know until he’s done with the redevelopment.
“My goal is to have it done at the end of this month.”
That means renters could be in by July.
George plans an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. on June 19 for neighbors and future renters to tour the property.
Potential renters also can schedule tours before and after that at www.cedarmillswichita.com.
George said he hopes people check out the conversion and the living experience it now offers.
“The design of this building is unique. . . . They’re not cookie-cutter apartments.”
School authority
Wichitan Mike Levand is something of an authority on the former school.
“When I was a little boy, about 4 years old, we moved in across the street from that property.”
His family still lives a half block from it.
Levand started kindergarten in 1956 when the school opened, and he was one of about 10 kids who “were the very first graduating class that went to kindergarten to sixth grade.”
In fact, the 72-year-old Levand cared so deeply for his second grade teacher, Betsy Burnham Young, he has half-seriously joked about moving into her old room.
Not only does he know the school well, but Levand has come to know George, too, and he said he’s unlike a lot of developers.
“Tom George is a guy who cares deeply on his impact on the community and the neighborhood.”
When he was seeking rezoning, George initially wanted to include a potential future use for fourplexes on part of the property. He didn’t want to build them but wanted to get the rezoning for future developers.
Neighbors vociferously told him that was not in the best interests for them, the character of the neighborhood or their property values, so George dropped it.
“He listened to the community around that school when we had public hearings,” Levand said.
He said George is a stellar citizen and a man of his word.
“If I had money, there is no development that he would go do that I would not back him financially. That’s how strongly I . . . feel about him.”
This article was produced by The Wichita Eagle as part of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. The WJC is an alliance of seven media organizations and three community groups, formed to support and enhance quality local journalism. KMUW is a founding partner of the WJC.