COLUMBIA — After an out-of-state property developer bought the former Wardlaw senior apartments and announced plans for major renovations, most of the residents moved out.
Joseph Murphy was not one of them.
“The transformation of this building from what it was to what it is is awesome,” Murphy said during a recent tour of the newly renovated building, now named Elmwood Lofts. “I can’t believe that this place is actually looking like this.”
Multihousing, the property management company that took over the building in 2023, is putting the finishing touches on a $2 million renovation, but has already begun leasing some of the 66 one- and two-bedroom units.
When Multihousing bought the building, most of the then-25 tenants moved out, with just 10 staying throughout the renovations, Murphy said. Some left over fears that they would be priced out after the improvements.
The newly renovated one- and two-bedroom apartments range in cost from $1,250 to $1,650 a month. Some former residents told The Post and Courier they were paying less than $1,000 a month in rent before the building got a makeover.
Affordability
The units at Elmwood Lofts will be 60 percent market rate and 40 percent affordable, according to Multihousing CEO Jay Biggins. The affordable units are set aside for people making 60 percent of the average median income for the city, which is a little over $35,000 a year as of 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While the entire building was dedicated to affordable housing before the renovations, the previously high vacancy rate due to the poor conditions — around 80 percent — means there effectively has not been a loss of supply, Biggins said.
“Over 50 percent of those (affordable units) were vacant, so they weren’t doing anybody any good,” he said. “Now, we’re going to anticipate being 100 percent occupied on those restricted units. So it was a win-win. It’s a win for the community, and it’ll ultimately be a win for the building over time.
“We absolutely will have the same — maybe not be the exact same person — but the same income profile will be in those units,” he said.
The market rate units are going for $1,250 to $1,400 a month for a one-bedroom unit and $1,550 to $1,650 a month for a two-bedroom unit, according to property manager Alec Deane and online listings.
The average rent in Columbia is just under $1,400 a month, and over $2,000 for the Elmwood neighborhood, according to data from RentCafe.
Both the market rate and affordable units have been renovated with new kitchen and bathroom counters, appliances and fixtures. Art has been installed throughout the building’s common areas, while the building’s original facade and windows have been preserved, along with some areas of flooring.
The company is currently working to install a fence around the perimeter, and Deane said there has been high interest in the property since tenants began signing leases in July.
Neighborhood residents are happy with the renovations and mixed-income model of the complex, said John Wilkinson, president of the Elmwood Neighborhood Association.
“We think it’s good to have that blend, and we see that throughout our whole neighborhood and I think that lends to a better quality of life for everyone,” he said.
Wardlaw Junior High School opened in 1924 as the first freestanding junior high school in the state. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 before being converted into senior housing in 1999.
The complex, then known as Wardlaw Apartments, made headlines in recent years for dilapidated living conditions and code violations.
Loss of senior housing
The Wardlaw is not the only senior housing complex in the city to be redeveloped or taken offline in recent years.
The Columbia Public Housing Authority began moving seniors out of apartments at the Marion Street high-rise due to poor conditions in 2021.
Hundreds of units, many occupied by seniors, were demolished when the nearly century-old Gonzales Gardens and Allen-Benedict Court public housing complexes were condemned and demolished in 2017 and 2021, respectively.
New developments with some units set aside for seniors are planned for those sites.
Many seniors have been displaced when these complexes are demolished or renovated, regardless of whether those units are replaced with more affordable housing, said Andrew Boozer, executive director of Columbia nonprofit Senior Resources Inc.
The nonprofit served several Wardlaw residents through its Meals on Wheels program before and after the renovations, Boozer added.
Two blocks down Elmwood Street from the Wardlaw, Transitions Homeless Shelter has seen an increase in the number of homeless seniors, according to CEO Craig Currey. When the shelter opened in 2011, seniors made up 6 percent of the total population.
Today that number is 17 percent.