St. Mary’s School To Be Converted to Senior Housing
By MONICA CALZOLARI
ONEONTA
St. Mary’s School at 34-36 Walnut Street in Oneonta is about to undergo a major renovation. Within 18-22 months, the building will be converted into eight apartments for seniors. Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek called a press conference on Tuesday, July 8 to announce this project, which took three years of planning and approvals.
One of the developers for the project is Al Rubin, an Oneonta resident and chief executive officer, founder, and president of A & D Transport Services Inc.
Rubin teamed up with engineer and architect Lee Marigliano of Delhi, who owns LRM Architect PC, to form SMS Oneonta Realty LLC as equal partners.
SMS stands for St Mary’s School.
Each partner is investing 50 percent of the cost to convert the underutilized school into senior housing. The total investment is “north of $1,000,000.00,” Rubin said.
Rubin has been a longtime parishioner of St. Mary’s Church.
“My marriage was blessed in this church and all our kids were baptized here,” he said.
“This is a beautiful, historic building,” Rubin added.
He plans to keep the name of the building and the Madonna statue intact.
“It is a win-win,” according to the Rev. Chris Welch of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church.
“It cost $250,000.00 per year to keep up [and heat] the school,” Welch said.
He explained that the school was mostly used for “faith formation” in recent years.
Every Sunday, about 25-30 people would gather there after service for bible study.
The former school building also contains a food pantry, which the developers plan to keep.
Each floor of the two-story building will be converted into four apartments for a total of eight apartments. A new elevator will be installed.
“Addressing the community’s needs has been at the heart of this project since those first discussions more than three years ago,” Drnek recalled.
“We plan to keep the corridors wide,” Rubin said. “The basement will become an event space for up to 120 people.”
Rubin referred to this million dollar project as a “mid-level project.”
“When you team up with the right people, you set a precedent,” he said.
Rubin hopes that the lessons learned from repurposing this building to fill current community needs will be an example to other developers looking to invest in similar housing projects.
SMS Oneonta Realty LLC will not be relying on tax incentives to complete this project.
“The city has been here every step of the way,” Rubin said.
He hopes a fence will go up around the property in the next few days to signal that the project is underway.
St. Mary’s Church approached Mayor Drnek three years ago with the intent to sell the property and the desire to create housing for seniors.
It took time to find the right buyer, and for the Diocese of Albany to approve the sale.
“As the saying goes…the Good Lord works in mysterious ways,” Drnek said.
