Miramar Real Estate Management, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the winning bidder for the redevelopment of former Chestnut Junior High School in Memorial Square provided a slick proposal to the city for its plans for market-rate condominiums. The spiral-bound book includes tabloid-size, pull-out architectural drawings and full-color, touchy-feely watercolor renderings imagining a future of middle-class urban utopia. The envisioned result has some serious appeal.
"The proposed residential project will provide the City with unique benefits," the proposal states, "that can only be achieved through the development process." The project will boost the area physically and visually, the description continues, enhancing property values and triggering further redevelopment and investment not just in the immediate location, but elsewhere in the city.
"[A]lthough [the building] is with broken windows, graffiti and no landscape, the building itself is still an important feature and an icon when exiting from Downtown through Chestnut Street," the proposal states. "Rescuing it will transform an area that is a target for vandalism and turn an insecure environment into a livable urban neighborhood."
Continuing in this optimistic vein, the proposal goes on to say that Chestnut Estate—as the condo development will be named—is a "great opportunity to repopulate, bring investment and be attractive for business creation. As a result, the economic activity will generate new employment opportunities." It cites the Urban Land Institute study regarding the scarcity of "residential development" (presumably referring to market-rate housing downtown) and notes Springfield’s central location to Boston, Hartford and New York (also highlighted in the ULI panel’s report).
Not only will the project benefit the city, the proposal states, but it will also be "a model on how to gain or recuperate loss of activity and investment into the area."
As for the details of the project, the plan is to create 110 units of housing all built on existing, restored structures, "preserving its old charm, architecture and character." Chestnut Estate will consist of two main buildings. The original school will be named Chestnut Gallery. The former theater, basketball court, cafeteria and classrooms addition will be named Chestnut Courtyard. The bridge between the two buildings will be demolished.
Between the two buildings the plan is for a play yard common area. In Chestnut Courtyard, adjacent to the play yard, seven two-story townhouses will be constructed side by side, with five more planned in the same building.
These spaces where the townhouses will be built are the former theater and one of the former basketball courts, respectively (one court will be demolished, "the only substantial demolition"). The townhouses, each with two bedrooms and one-and-a-half-bathrooms and a total of just over 1200 square feet, will all be outfitted with second-floor balconies and will have independent entries.
At the center of Chestnut Courtyard will be an open-air common patio, or what used to be the cafeteria with the roof removed.
Artist’s rendering of Chestnut Courtyard patio
Covered corridors will surround the courtyard, leading to apartment unit entrances. Apartments on the first floor "will have access to private patios on the lateral and back of the building"—which, on one side, will look out on a parking lot, but these have potential to be nice patios. Main access to this building will be at Prospect Street.
Artist’s rendering of Chestnut Courtyard townhouses viewed from a small parking lot
Chestnut Gallery will be considered the "main structure," the one "with the main presence in the neighborhood. The original character and architectural features of the building will remain. Among them are the corridors or galleries that link to the former classrooms that will be converted into the apartment units." These are considered important elements because they are large spaces and provide a visual connection to the outdoors.
Former classroom spaces in the building will be converted into one-, two- and three-bedroom units, maintaining original interior partitions as much as possible. A variety of square-footage units will be created, ranging from the smallest, a one-bedroom at about 650 square feet, to the largest, a three-bedroom, two-full-bath at just under 1200 square feet.
Surrounding Chestnut Estate, the plan includes new sidewalks, landscaping, trees, and lighting. The development will also offer to its residents a fitness center and meeting room. The proposal says that the area will "recover its splendor with its new front landscape," presumably putting an end to the practice of parking cars on the front lawn in the building’s final years as a functioning school.
Parking for residents, controlled by security gates, will be available in three main areas, providing "at least 110 parking spaces." A lot on Prospect Terrace will provide room for about 83 vehicles according to the proposed master plan. Two other "pocket areas"—one off Chestnut Street, and another off Prospect Street—will provide room for 18 and eleven vehicles, respectively. Room for the former will be created by the demolition of the basketball court mentioned earlier. A drop-off lane will be available from Chestnut Street, as well as some visitor parking, although the master plan does not indicate where visitors would park.
Estimated timeline for Chestnut Estate. View image in a separate window for a closer look
If the negotiation and sale phase goes smoothly, Miramar estimates another eight months to complete the design and bidding process. Construction would begin with "the clearing, environmental cleaning and selective demolition of Chestnut Gallery," followed by rehabilitation, within just a few months, prior to the finalization of the design.
"Halfway through the construction of Chestnut Gallery," the proposal states, "construction on Chestnut Courtyard will begin. Construction of the parking spaces and exterior areas will take place approximately four months after the rehabilitation commences." The whole project is estimated to be complete about 30 months after it begins, at a total cost of about $30 million (all privately funded), or $280,312 per unit.
The project is estimated to create about 100 construction jobs as well as an additional ten permanent jobs for management and preservation.
