From a School to Apartments at St. James

Genesis Non-Profit Housing Corporation (GNPHC) recently completed the renovation of St. James Catholic School into St. James Apartments with ASTI’s assist.  The St. James Catholic School was built in 1903,  where the original building stood two stories tall including a sunken gymnasium on the first floor and a performance theater on the second.  In 2016, Geneiss NPHC approached ASTI to help with the environmental needs that come with major task of renovating an old school building into a new apartments.  After an initial assessment in became apparent that lead and asbestos were some of the main issues that would need to be taken care of prior to renovation.

After the initial assessment, ASTI completed a more in depth, Lead Inspection & Risk Assessment, and an Asbestos Inspection of the entire building.  From there ASTI also handled writing the bid specs in order to get a competitive contractor to complete the lead and asbestos abatement.  Once a contractor was found and abatement activities began, ASTI stayed onsite to help with oversite and clearance testing to assure the quality and safety of the abatement process. In additional to the management of lead and asbestos,  ASTI also performed mold testing and gave recommendation on changes that could be made during renovations to reduce the amount of moisture in the building and prevent a future problem. To round out the complete services that ASTI offered to GNPH. ASTI”s Engineering Group performed a noise assessment for the building to provide insight on new wall construction types in order to reduce noise pollution from the surrounding urban area. 

From 2017 through 2018 the building was completely transformed from a vacant school building into beautiful apartments.  The classrooms were renovated into single story apartments, while the gym was changed into unique two-story loft style apartments, and an elevator was added for convenience.  New windows were installed, along with all new heating and cooling systems. To wrap up the project, ASTI completed the final documentations for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to help Genesis NPHC capture funding assistance for the renovations.