Marie Moyer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Three former schools in Mid-Missouri are expected to see their classrooms filled again through adaptive reuse projects that focus on restoring historic buildings for new uses, specifically housing.
“I love old buildings,” said Sandy Hisle, co-owner of Marshall Tower Realty. “New construction is beautiful, and it’s super energy efficient and all of that, old buildings, they just have that character.”
Hisle is no stranger to restoring properties. Previous projects included the Tower Realty office, a former 1930s car dealership, and the Tower Extended Stay Suites, a 1950s motel. Now she’s turning her attention to the former Benton Elementary School.
Hisle’s project is not the only former school being reimagined in Mid-Missouri. The Carver School apartments in Fulton have already been completed, while the Tannehill Apartments in Moberly are expected to finish soon.
Adaptive reuse projects have been on the uptick nationally, with RentCafe reporting nearly 25,000 apartments added through adaptive reuse projects in 2024.
Doug Ressler, senior analyst and manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, expects the number of adaptive reuse projects to increase as underused office spaces tied to hybrid and remote work meet growing housing needs.
The Benton school on South Ellsworth Avenue in Marshall was built in 1922 and was used as a school until it closed in May 2025, after a new school was built. Marshall Tower Realty purchased the property that summer.
The project is expected to create 17 apartments and turn the cafeteria space into a rentable commercial kitchen. Hisle predicts the project will cost $60,000 a unit, not including the overall building infrastructure.
“The walls are basically built where each one has a block and brick walls that go all the way to the ceiling,” Hisle said. “This building was built to be here a long time.”
The Tannehill Apartments on North Johnson Street in Moberly is a 1930s-era school building that housed Moberly junior high and high school classes. It was last used in 1977. The project is overseen by ND Consulting Group and the Northeast Community Action Corporation, which used public money to finance construction in 2020.
The project initially was expected to cost around $14 million, later upped to $22 million. The apartments are set to open on March 19 with 40 affordable housing units for residents 55 and older.
The Carver School Apartments hosted a grand opening in December 2025. The building is located on Westminster Avenue in Fulton, and was a partnership between MACO Management Company, Inc. and the George Washington Carver School Cultural Center Board. It was built in 1937 as an all-Black school until it was integrated by the Fulton Board of Education in 1970.
The school was last used for Fulton Public Schools’ sixth-grade class, closing in 1982. MACO was contacted about the project by the board in 2018, and closed on financing and bought the property in 2024.
The construction cost around $8 million. The completed building has 33 affordable housing units, also focused on seniors.
“It seems like the school buildings work a little better.” said MACO Management Company President Jason Maddox. “Just because of the similarity in size.”
After a property is picked and purchased for renovations, work can begin. Projects often see delays in the permit and funding process, though.
Both the Tannehill apartments and Carver school apartments rode out delays in funding. The Tannehill apartments shifted through various plans for around 20 years before partnering with ND Consulting Group in 2020. The developers were later able to secure a $2.6 million home loan from the Missouri Housing Development Commission, and roughly $10.5 million in federal and state low-income housing tax credits and investments from Midwest Housing Equity Group and Monarch Private Capital.
The Carver school was put on pause in 2019 due to the pandemic. The search for funding started in 2021, with the project getting two tax credit applications rejected. Developers later landed $8.2 million in federal housing credits, $3.7 million in state housing credits and $766,000 in federal historic tax credits.
The permit process typically comes after the project’s architects and structural and project engineers come in to review the structure and plan out what’s needed for construction. This includes taking note of any existing damage and plumbing and electric components of the building.
According to Maddox, in some cases, assessments from MACO’s engineers and builders find that renovating a building can cost as much as new construction.
“Maybe it doesn’t make sense if you can build something brand new, but when you consider the historic element that value is worth something,” Maddox said. “So while the dollars sometimes can get very large and doing these conversions, there’s always a value to preserving that piece of history.”
The plans are then brought to city officials, who also often inspect the properties throughout the construction process.
“These are both in residential areas, typical of the old schools that were situated amongst people’s neighborhoods and that presents some initial challenges,” Marshall City Administrator JD Kehrman said. “They often have to be either rezoned or, in the case of Marshall’s code, the Planning and Zoning Commission was able to issue what’s called a special use permit to allow these old buildings to be converted into residential apartments.”
The Benton project is in the permit approval process with Hisle hoping to start construction in April or May.
All three housing projects began with renovation and preservation in mind, though the need for housing remains significant across Mid-Missouri.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports Missouri is short more than 127,000 affordable rental homes.
“There’s a great demand here for rental property, and so the opportunity for somebody to rent space in a converted old building like that, it’s not just aesthetically appealing, but it also fills a much-needed gap in the housing,” Kehrman said.
Households are considered severely cost-burdened if they spend more than 50% of their gross monthly income on housing-related expenses. In 2024, the Missouri Housing Development Commission found that more than 9% of renters in Saline and Callaway counties fall into that category. This rate jumps to over 17% in Randolph County.
“We’ve been working on multiple different projects for housing. Marshall has not had a lot of new construction in the last several years,” Hisle said. “We’re in a major need for housing.”
In a 2023 housing study of Callaway County, Central Missouri Community Action found that available housing in Fulton was low. The average time a house is on the market is between five and six months. Fulton saw homes being on the market for an average of 2.8 months in 2022.
The report also found that rental rates have increased over the last decade by between 23% and nearly 50%. They also found that energy costs in the city of Fulton are 18% higher than the national average for renters.
Thomas Mustain, who recently moved into the Carver Apartments, agrees that finding affordable housing is difficult.
“At times it has, yeah, a lot of places are $800 to $900 a month, and plus you know down payments, that’s kind of high for me,” Mustain said.
Mustain saod neighbors he spoke with are satisfied with the units.
“Everything is just lining up what we’re going to be needing, washer and dryer,” Mustain said, “The rental price is very reasonable compared to most places, that’s number one right there, and we can have our dogs too.”
Both the Tannehill and Carver school apartments are accepting new leases.
Click here to follow the original article.
