Apartment development at Tecumseh Public Schools administration building hits the brakes

TECUMSEH — Plans to develop the former Tecumseh Public Schools administration building on North Ottawa Street into a 43-unit apartment complex have been put on hold because the developer was unable to receive historic preservation tax credits.

“We have a gap and that’s the reason we haven’t proceeded any further," said Craig Patterson, senior vice president of development at the Woda Cooper Companies of Columbus, Ohio. "We’re trying to find other sources of money. Tax credits is our main line of business. That’s how we primarily fund our developments throughout the state and in the other 15 states we work. Housing tax credits. We had hoped to combine housing tax credits along with historic credits, but we were not able to get an approval from SHPO, the State Historic Preservation Office, to allow us to get those credits because they felt that our design that we had proposed was not historically accurate enough. That was the design we had on the annex.”

The developer had planned to tear down the annex on the building and erect a three-story structure with six units on each floor.

“What we were doing in the old building, they approved. They just would not allow us to tear down the annex, and we needed to tear down the annex to get the full 43 units,” Patterson said. “We’re looking at different ways that we can design the building to include tearing down the annex but mining the sources that would allow us to make up for the loss of historic tax credits that we would have received if the SHPO would have approved it.”

Those sources would be the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

First Woda Cooper would have to score high on its MSHDA application in April, but that is made more difficult by the fact that it lost the historic tax credits, which would have counted toward the developer’s point total.

“In the past we felt we were within striking distance. But we have to make up those points, plus we have to make up a loss in funding from those credits. So it’s pretty much an uphill battle, but as I told Rick (Hilderley, superintendent of Tecumseh Public Schools) and I told Dan (Swallow), the city manager, and I told Jessica (Sattler, the city’s economic development director), we’re going to try to do our best because we love the site, we love the city, we know there’s a great need and we can make that school look great after our rehab,” Patterson said. “If we’re able to do this with the MEDC and MSHDA, it’s going to be a marquee project. It’s going to be great for the city. I hope we can do it.”

Hilderley said the district was with Woda Cooper all the way. Maintenance issues have been taken care of at the building and someone checks on it regularly. The administration moved to the high school in August 2020.

“We told this group that we're with them until such time as they tell us that they can’t move forward anymore,” Hilderley said. “So that’s what we’re continuing to do is wait for them to set a closing date and let us know.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Redevelopment of Tecumseh schools administration building on hold