Bailey Community Center on Jan 30, 2015, in East Lansing.
The future of the Bailey Community Center is no longer in limbo as the Capital Area Housing Partnership, or CAHP, received a Low Income Housing Tax Credit funding reservation from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, or MSHDA, on Jan. 20.
“This is a win for the City, for the neighborhood and for CAHP,” East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows said in a press release.
Money from the tax credit and funding from other “committed financing” will allow the project to renovate the building to hold 25 low-income, one-and-two-bedroom senior apartments. The senior housing will be for residents 55 and older with an income that is 30-60 percent of the Area Median Income.
The project also comes with a service familiar to building, as the project is looking to create an area for a daycare provider. CAHP will also house offices in the building and is creating areas for commercial and community activities.
“From my perspective as the former chair of CAHP, as a current CAHP board member and now as mayor, this project preserves and enhances a community asset and provides new and exciting senior housing, which will help stabilize and expand housing opportunities in the Bailey Neighborhood,” Meadows said in the press release.
The long-standing Bailey Center closed its doors on Sept. 4, 2015 amidst struggles surrounding rising operation costs and safety risks for the old building.
The building carried with it a staggering deficit of $150,000 and repair costs were estimated to be about $400,000.
It first opened its doors in 1922 as an East Lansing public school but quickly became a pillar for community involvement throughout its nearly 100 year history by hosting community recreation and arts events as well continuing to serve as a child care program within East Lansing Public Schools.
Bailey Center’s services were often the go-to for MSU faculty and staff who had children in need of toddler and infant care. But as age caught up to the building and costs to keep the building running became too steep to pay, City Council took action to decide its future.
Intense debate about what to do with the 300,000 square foot building came to decision by City Council to ultimately cease operations in the popular building a year ago. Now the building will be undergoing a reformation that hopes to provide for another facet of the East Lansing community.
Construction on the project is expected to commence late summer of 2016. Completion of the project is expected by fall of 2017.
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