St. Marys School Jason Von Guinness, realtor and property steward for Greenmark Inc. of Albany, presented his plans to the board Wednesday night to commit to minor renovations upon his purchase of the old St. Marys School building on High Street for residential use. The building is currently owned by St. Marys Academy. Von Guinness proposed that the building be converted into a seven-unit apartment building: Each floor divided into two, and a single unit in the basement to be occupied by Guinness and his family. Guinness said that the building would ultimately be broken into no more than 14 units, but he would like to keep the number of divisions to seven in order to do as little renovation as possible and keep the building historically intact. The 1885 school building has enough parking space for the latter, but also has enough land to expand parking for the former. No structural changes would be made. Each of the six rental units would be converted into large, 1,500 square-foot one bedroom apartments, mirrored on either side. The capital region realtor said that he has specialized in the renovation and stewardship of older churches and schools into residential buildings. He said St. Marys would be a project he would take great pride in. I really havent done any building younger than 100 years old, Guinness said. Buildings of this vintage are something that I enjoy. Guinness will present his plans in greater detail at the October village board meeting to ensure the community that the building will be kept in as original of a state as it could be. Also, he wants to move to Hoosick Falls with his wife to raise a family. Because the building would become Guinness primary residence at some point, the board said the village approval would be much simpler, and the building permit much easier to obtain. If the space is zoned as owner occupied housing and if Guinness were to ever move out, a caretaker would need to reside on site.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 21:57:54 +0000
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