Another huge asset to the project was John Lambert and his crew at Abstract Masonry Restoration. With offices in Salt Lake City and Boston, Abstract Masonry Restoration specializes in the repair of historic masonry. If a structure isn’t made of old masonry, the team doesn’t touch it. The church made Lambert’s crew drool on their shoes. The building’s exterior had terrible hard-water deposits, and Abstract Masonry Restoration’s experts told me, “You’re going to be amazed at how much filth and grime a building’s exterior can accumulate in 100 years.” Lambert told me there were colors and highlights in the brick I’d never seen. After his crew gave the exterior a good bath, I concluded he was spot on.
Abstract Masonry Restoration was also instrumental in various masonry repairs, most notably the top of the huge chimney and some isolated mortar areas that needed stitching and repointing. True to the crew’s word, it’s nearly impossible to tell the repairs from the original masonry.
An unexpected bonus was the interior brick walls, all of which were covered with 1 inch of plaster. We discovered the brick underneath the plaster almost by accident. The more of the brick we exposed, the more it became evident that we absolutely had to use it as an interior design element. That old brick, obviously laid by rookie masons, using a mishmash of colors and sizes, is so absolutely bad, it’s off-the-charts good. It’s gorgeous. People go wild over it. Having Abstract Masonry Restoration remove the plaster and carefully clean that interior brick was some of the best money we spent.
It was a quick decision to install all new mechanical systems. Water, sewer, electrical, HVAC and natural gas are all brand new, from the exterior in. As good as the original builders were, a single 3/4-inch water line; gobs of knob and tube wiring; and an immense, decades-old steam boiler just didn’t cut it. (However, the boiler still worked. I fired it up once and could just feel money flying out of the boiler room.)
Favorable Response
With the project complete, leasing went well. Given the cost of what we’ve done, rental rates for these spaces had to be high. Our rents are at the top of our market, ranging from $900 to $1,600 per month ($1.53 per foot per month) plus utilities. I suppose that’s laughably low by major-market standards, but it’s high in Provo.
The pricing structure seems to be mitigated by the fact that prospects who tour the apartments are generally blown away by what they see. My marketing experience tells me consumers respond very favorably to a product that is substantially different from the norm. This living space is different. Finding willing tenants has not been a problem.
I’m not a rabid preservationist, but I’m smart enough to know that a 100-year-old Mormon church in a community whose history is steeped in Mormonism really needs to be saved. This building was at a point that it could have easily gone downhill quickly and ended up in dump trucks. That would have been tragic.
Having extended the building’s visual and functional life by 50, 100 or who-knows-how-many additional years is reason enough for the project. Having taught the building some new economic tricks, like how to sustain itself, is an added bonus. Providing a new, higher level of residential space for a market that wants it is even better.
Learn more about this project at www.OldChapelApartments.com
Retrofit Team
Architect: Scholz Architects, Provo, Utah
General Contractor: Sorensen Brothers Construction, Spanish Fork, Utah
Structural Engineer: Jay Bytheway, Spanish Fork
Masonry: Abstract Masonry Restoration, Salt Lake
PHOTOS: N. Gregory Soter