FeedsNational Church Residences to renovate Wayne Towers
Wayne Towers will soon have a different look, although you may have to step inside the senior high-rise to see it.
National Church Residences (NCR), a non-profit organization, recently purchased the structure for more than $7 million and plans to put an additional $1.8 million into it in the form of renovations to the units, according to James Baugh, director of acquisitions and development for NCR. He estimated that each unit would get about $9,000 in upgrades, including new appliances.
“It’s a great investment in the building,” he told members of the Wayne City Council last week.
Other renovations at the 25-year-old building include new elevators and enhancements to the common spaces, he said.
“This building has a lot of common space,” he said. “It’s what we really like to see in our buildings. It gets the senior citizens out of their apartments.”
The non-profit group works organizations like the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department to ensure there are affordable apartments for senior citizens, Baugh said. Even though the renovations will push up the value of the apartments, it will have little impact on the rent the seniors pay—or their ability to stay in the structure. They work with an income guideline, he said, that tells them if the seniors are eligible for the subsidized apartment units. That is about $31,455 for the one-bedroom units and $37,746 for the two bedroom units. There are only three or four residents who don’t meet those requirements, he said. They’ll have the option to move out—and NCR will pay for the relocation—or the organization will simply not get the tax credits for those units, Baugh said.
“The bottom line is that it’s voluntary,” he said. “(If they want to stay) we’ll take a hit on the tax credits, but we built that into our financial model.”
Baugh said some of the things that attracted NCR to the building were the overall condition and high occupancy rate—which is currently at about 99 percent.
“It shows there’s a high demand for this type of property in the area,” he said.
The change in ownership and the renovations are likely the only difference residents will see, too.
“We mean to keep this building available for seniors for at least 30 years,” he said.
Even though NCR is a non-profit, the acquisition will have no negative impact on the city tax rolls, according to Finance Director Tim McCurley.
“They would have to operated it as a church-related business in order to get tax-exempt status,” he said.
Baugh said the company hopes to close on the deal by the end of the month.
