BY JOHN CROPLEY, The Daily Gazette
SCHENECTADY — A long-vacant Catholic school would get a new lease on life in its second century as part of a $19 million proposal to create 55 apartments in the Eastern Avenue corridor.
A Rochester company that has converted several other old schools to apartments and specializes in workforce housing will bring its proposal before the Schenectady Board of Zoning Appeals on Tuesday evening.
The plan calls for the old St. Mary’s School at 104 Irving St. to be converted into 25 apartments, and for vacant commercial buildings at 817, 819 and 823 Eastern Ave. to be demolished then replaced with new construction containing 30 apartments and two commercial/retail spaces in 34,400 square feet.
Tuesday’s hearing will be the first formal public review of a plan that has been in development for months with partner agencies, and will depend in part on grants and other assistance.
The plan requires zoning adjustments because many of its details would could not conform to the C-2, R-2 and R-3 residential zoning district regulations, thanks to issues such as too few parking spaces, too little setback from property boundaries and not enough landscaping.
Rochester-based Home Leasing has built and now manages 2,000 units of housing in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. In the Capital Region, it recently started work on Clinton Avenue Apartments, a $50 million overhaul of 70 row houses in a five-block stretch in Albany that will contain 210 units.
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