Sycamore Place turned blight into delight

By JUDITH DULBERGER
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
S YOU WALK OR DRIVE ALONG 12th Street and turn onto Tremble Avenue, you might not believe your eyes. You see what appears to be a refurbished Victorian mansion surrounded by an aging neighborhood.
Many late 19th and early 20th century cities grew up on the subdivided property of old estates. So it's not uncommon to find once-luxurious mansion houses quietly tucked away within the urban landscapes of older cities.
But in this case, you quickly realize that the diminutive turn-of-the-century homes of one of Campbell's oldest neighborhoods came first. The mansion is not a mansion at all, but a new, or nearly new, 56-unit residential complex for independent seniors 55 years old or "better."
Built on the site of the old Gordon Street School, Sycamore Place Apartments are quickly becoming a self-contained neighborhood within a neighborhood.
Affordable housing
The $5.3 million project was financed largely through the Federal Affordable Housing Tax Credit Program, which provides federal tax credits for developers and contractors as an incentive to develop affordable rental housing projects.
Since 1987, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency has used the Housing Credit Program to assist in the development of almost 60,000 affordable rental housing units throughout Ohio.
Allocation of the tax credits is a very competitive process, says Pat Rosenthal of Common Wealth Inc., a Youngstown-based nonprofit community development corporation.
Common Wealth packaged the Sycamore Place deal with a lot of cooperation and support from public and private partners. It successfully competed for the tax credits and began construction in September 2000. A year later, the doors of Sycamore Place opened to working and nonworking seniors who fit within a tax bracket of 60 percent of median income or below.
Community ties
Millie Kish, 80, was one of the first people to move in. For several months she had the place nearly all to herself before the units started filling up.
Millie lived on the East Side of Youngstown for many years and worked at Hills department store before retiring. While living with one of her daughters in Campbell, she watched Sycamore Place rising from the site of the badly deteriorated Gordon Street School building. She decided to move into Sycamore Place to be near her church -- Christ Community Church -- and to be close to her kids, including four children, 14 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Anna Evans, 71, has lived at Sycamore Place since last November. She lived on Second Street in Campbell all her life. But she has a special attachment to the site of Sycamore Place. Her kids and grandkids attended Gordon Street School, and Anna held her first job there. "And now I live here," she says.
A family setting
Millie and Anna have become close friends. Mary McQuillan makes it a trio. It turns out that Mary's kids knew Millie's kids while they were growing up and living on the East Side, just across U.S. Route 422 from Campbell.
Mary speaks for others when she says that Sycamore Place is like a family. Residents help each other out if it's folding clothes in the laundry room, taking out garbage, looking for lost keys or escorting each other to and from the parking lot after dark.
And residents have a say in what goes on at Sycamore Place. Just like any condo organization or neighborhood group, they hold resident council meetings once a month to decide policies, air complaints and plan special events.
There are lots of "doings" at Sycamore Place, according to Mary. Her family planned a surprise party for her 75th birthday. They used the community room and fully equipped kitchen. This was a special event, but regular events are planned weekly or monthly, including movie nights, bingo and food events on holidays such as Halloween or Thanksgiving.
Aside from the community room, there are also other spaces for arts and crafts activities. There is a library with computer and Internet access. And there is a doctor's room, where a visiting nurse comes once a month and local podiatrists meet with residents every six to eight weeks. Managers may even turn the doctor's office into a part-time hair salon -- to get the most use out of the space.
Into the light
When compared with other apartments in which she has lived since her husband's death, Mary McQuillan says that Sycamore Place is "like coming out of a dungeon into a home."
The three-story building includes a two-story entrance lobby and community room. They are residential in scale, yet elegant in their appearance, featuring oak trim, wooden plank flooring, indirect lighting and abundant windows.
The two-bedroom apartments are also spacious and laid out to respond to the special needs of the elderly. Some of the units are designed to be "super accessible" for wheelchair users, and all of the other units have kitchens and bathrooms that are easily adaptable to provide accessibility to the disabled. This allows residents to maintain independent living as long as possible.
Positive impact
Campbell Mayor John Dill says the city didn't go looking for the Sycamore Place project, but he couldn't be happier that Common Wealth brought it to their doorstep. The "unbelievable eyesore" of the Gordon Street School seemed destined to define the area for some time to come. Demolition costs were just too high for the city to absorb.
Now, "it's beautiful," said Dill. And there has been a spin-off effect on this once blighted area. Some Gordon Avenue and Tremble Avenue property owners have chosen to rehabilitate their homes and businesses through the help of Common Wealth instead of abandoning the area. Several homeowners have made private improvements.
Dill thinks most Campbell residents have yet to see Sycamore Place. He wishes everyone in the community could at least drive by.