Winston-Salem Journal Historic Nissen Building is taking shape as a comfortable comm...

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Winston-Salem Journal Historic Nissen Building is taking shape as a comfortable comm..."

Stephanie Bailey
5 years ago
Views:

1 Page 1 of 5 Classifieds Relish Jobs Cars Homes Advertise Contact Us Search Subscribe Contact Search Go! Register Login Edit Profile Logout Online partner of the Jul. 21, 2005 Home News Ask SAM Business Entertainment Health Living Local News Multimedia Nation/World News Updates Opinion Special Reports Sports Weather Associated Press Community Calendars Celebrations Obituaries Journal in Education Personals Marketplace CarSeeker HomeSeeker CareerSeeker ApartmentSeeker Business Directory Special Sections Search Classifieds Newspaper Ads JournalNow & You Place a Classified Ad Place Other Ads Buy a Photo Contact Us Corrections Friday, April 22, 2005 Historic Nissen Building is taking shape as a comfortable community of apartments By Kim Underwood JOURNAL REPORTER In just a few months, residents of the Nissen Apartments should be able to lounge by the rooftop heated pool while taking in a view that, on clear days, goes all the way to the mountains of southern Virginia. Or, if they would prefer, they can unwind after work with other residents on the first floor in the 2,000-square-foot lounge with bar. When they come home from a shopping trip laden with bags, they will find someone in the lobby ready to hold the door and help them get their goodies on the elevator. If they take a notion to work out on a treadmill at 3 a.m., they can. There will be a 24- hour fitness center in the basement. The owners of the historic Nissen Building at 310 W. Fourth Street, which is being converted into 145 apartments, want to offer more than apartments. They also want to >> a d v e r t i s e m e n t << >> w e b t o o l s << Print Story Story News Tip? >> r e l a t e d m a t e r i a l << Debris accumulated during work on the 18th floor, which will be the highest residential floor. (Photo by David Rolfe) PHOTO GALLERIES The Nissen Building - Outside The Nissen Building - Inside The Nissen Building - Work In Progress

2 Page 2 of 5 Update Games Join Our Panel Search Our Site Search Our Archives Site Map Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Paper Town Hall create a sense of community. They plan to schedule regular get-togethers for residents such as Sunset on the Roof, Friday Night Mixers and Fall Masquerade. The Nissen Building - Nissen in 1928 I think it's more of a lifestyle we're offering, and it's luxurious, said Melissa Crowell, HRI Properties' manager for this region. It's going to be something that the city hasn't done before, said Ron Silverman, the senior vice president of HRI. HRI - formerly Historic Restoration Inc. - is a New Orleans company that restores historic buildings. It is developing the project along with a group of local investors that includes Bill Wilson, Ralph Womble, David Neill, Don Flow and Rob Fowler. Two model apartments on the 17th floor - the highest residential floor is the 18th - have been completed. If all goes according to schedule, they will be furnished and opened to prospective residents by the end of June. Crowell said that people should be able to start moving in by Aug. 1. It could be sooner, she said. We don't want to make a promise we can't keep. All of the apartments should be done by the time people begin moving in, Silverman said. Devin Sprinkle, the property manager who will live in the building, grew up in Winston-Salem. After going into property management, she ended up in New Orleans, where HRI hired her. Company officials decided to send her back to Winston-Salem. Sprinkle said she is delighted to be participating in a project that is helping to bring life back to downtown. I think it's a huge step in that direction, Sprinkle said. I think it's coming at a good time. Originally an office building Nissen was built in 1927 as an office building. It's being converted into one- and two-bedroom apartments. The project has been in the works in one form or another for several years. Construction - Holder Construction Co. is the general contractor - began in last summer. Holder workers gutted each floor, working from the top down. The major reason is the flow of traffic, Silverman said. Any copper and aluminum that could be salvaged was sold for

3 Page 3 of 5 recycling. Along the way, workers had to deal with such issues as asbestos removal in ceiling tiles and pipe insulation. A few problems arose, such as asbestos in unexpected places. I wouldn't call anything you do on a building like this routine, Silverman said. You never know what you're going to get until you go at it. But nothing major cropped up, he said. Kevin Stajkowski, the project manager for Holder, said, We were really impressed by the structural integrity of the building. Before the studs and wallboard went up, some of the floor plans of some of the apartments were adjusted to take better advantage of the views. More people would rather have the view from the living room, Silverman said. The hallways were made about a foot narrower than when the building housed offices to add a little more square footage to the apartments. Workers replaced the building's original windows. Residents will be able to open them to enjoy fresh air. The budget for the project is about $32 million. We are right on budget, Silverman said. The fewest apartments on a floor is six, and the most is 9. The smallest apartment is about 700 square feet and the largest is about 1,500 square feet. In earlier stages of the project, there was some discussion of long-term plans to convert the apartments into condominiums. Silverman said that there are no plans to do that now. Currently, nobody is even looking at that, Silverman said. Although people won't be offered leases to sign until June, Crowell said, interest has been strong. She said she has gotten as many as 60 calls in a week and has a list of interested people five pages long. Monthly rents for the one-bedroom apartments start at $700 and for the two-bedroom apartments at $1,000. The building has no parking lot or deck. Residents will be able park in surrounding city-owned parking decks, which will cost about $60 a month. According to Carolina's Real Data in Charlotte, in March, average monthly rents in Winston-Salem and Greensboro were $598.

4 Page 4 of 5 Kathy Stitts, the associate dean at the School of Business and Economics at Winston-Salem State University, said that the rents are a little higher than general in this market but not necessarily high for what the building offers - amenities, social interaction and a downtown location. You get what you pay for, Stitts said. She does have some question about who will choose to sign leases there. Such amenities as Friday-night mixers and rooftop parties may not be of interest to older people. These are yuppie-type amenities, she said. And, with interest rates still relatively low and this being a relatively inexpensive housing market, people can buy a house for the same monthly payment as the rents, she said. Why would you invest that in rent when you can own something? It is possible that well-to-do parents might rent an apartment for a child in college, she said. In general, rents will be higher on the 14th through 18th floors, which have more spectacular views than the lower floors and such extra amenities as crown molding, fancier fixtures and more extensive hardwood flooring. Apartments have stacked washer/dryers, ceiling fans, marble counter tops and natural-wood kitchen cabinets. Ceilings in most apartments will be about 9 feet high. Each floor plan has individual touches, such as alcoves and staggered corners. In part, that was dictated by accommodating elements of the historic building, and, in part, it was because the people at HRI wanted the apartments to be distinctive. It's not a box, Silverman said. It gives people some very interesting design options. The lobbies and hallways also have character. The first-floor lobby is being restored to evoke the period from late 1920s to early 1930s. It will have a polished granite floor. The elevators have brass-clad steel doors. On the residential floors, the ceilings in the waiting areas just off the elevators have coffers - decorative sunken panels. And the old mail chutes next to the elevators - a reminder of the building's days as an office - have been kept. (The chutes won't be functional.) It's unlikely that anyone is going to be swimming laps in the pool on the 19th floor. It's only 10 feet wide, 20 feet long and 4 feet deep. But that's plenty big enough to splash around in and enjoy the sun and view.

5 Page 5 of 5 There are some days when you can see forever, Silverman said. This is over a 230-foot-tall building. Both the fitness center and the lobby lounge will have televisions. The bar in the lounge is being made out of safety-deposit boxes left in the building from the days in which it had a bank on the first floor. In addition to activities scheduled for all, residents will be able to reserve the lounge for private parties. The building's entrances will be locked at all times. Residents will get in by using a card. A courtesy officer stationed in the lobby will act as a sort of informal concierge. The first floor will house HRI's management offices and other businesses. Cheesecakes by Alex, which has a shop in Greensboro and supplies desserts to a number of businesses in the Triad, has signed a letter of intent to open a coffee-and-dessert shop in the building. Construction on a Mellow Mushroom pizza restaurant, which will open in the building's annex, is supposed to start within a month. Kim Underwood can be reached at (336) or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com For more information on this story and other news, pick up a copy of tomorrow's Winston-Salem Journal. To receive Updates from JournalNow, register here. Printer-Friendly Version this Story Subscribe News by Search our Site Search our Archives Corrections Got a News Tip? Join Our Panel Letters to the Editor Town Hall BACK TO TOP News: Ask SAM Business Entertainment Living Local Multimedia Opinion Special Reports Sports Weather AP Classifieds: Search All Ads CarSeeker CareerSeeker Real Estate Place an Ad Community: Calendars Celebrations Personals Obituaries JournalNow: Contact Us Corrections Panel Search Site Map Town Hall NOTICE: Use of this Web site is subject to certain Terms and Conditions. We may collect personal information on this site, as described in our Privacy Policy Winston-Salem Journal. The Winston-Salem Journal is a Media General newspaper.

Celebrating Campus Community. Housing Sign-Up Information

Celebrating Campus Community. Housing Sign-Up Information Celebrating Campus Community Housing Sign-Up Information 2017 2018 Office of Residence Life, 2 nd Floor Park Center reslife@meredith.edu 919-760-8633 Welcome to Housing Sign-up for the 2017 2018 academic