The Whitney first opened in 1879 and operated in its early days as the J.H. Needless wagon and carriage factory. In 1931, Edward A. Boss, the owner of the Boss Hotel System, dramatically altered the building into a hotel, making additional enhancements including the addition of a third story and a remodeled primary entrance. The adaptation of the building into a hotel during the Great Depression reflected an economical approach to filling a local void for clean and comfortable accommodations. After being used as a hotel through the mid-1970s, the building was sold to the Iowa Rehabilitation Center, which housed recovering alcoholics in the rooms that once hosted overnight motorists and local community groups. In more recent years, the building had been utilized for apartments, with a restaurant occupying the coffee shop area on the first floor until it became vacant in 2016.

Cleveland Athletic Club (“CAC”) was constructed in 1911 as a 15-story private club catering to individuals interested in athletics. This white terra cotta and brick building was designed by J. Milton Dyer who also designed Cleveland City Hall. CAC members included prominent figures such as businessman and former Mayor Charles Otis along with 1920’s aquatics Olympic medal winner Johnny Weissmueller also known for his acting as Tarzan. After decades of prominence in the Cleveland community, CAC ultimately ran into financial difficulty and became vacant in 2007.

Once a hub of economic vitality for the community, the factory was eventually closed and stood vacant for more than a decade before a new vision for revitalization emerged. Together with local residents and community organizers, nonprofit Community Solutions redeveloped the complex to capitalize on the assets of the community and address needs for high-quality jobs and community services.

Webbing Company Mill in Pawtucket, RI was originally constructed as a manufacturing facility for fabric products for the Hope Webbing Company, founded in 1883 by Charles Sisson and Oscar Steere. The facility manufactured fabrics using many different types of fibers including cotton, jute, wool, and silk. Textile was the dominant industry in Pawtucket in the early 1900s, along with machine shops and iron works. The oldest portion of the main mill and the boiler house were built in 1889, and the mill grew by numerous additions through 1914. The preparing building was built in 1902 and enlarged in 1913. The company occupied all or part of the premises until 1994.

The M. Swift & Sons Company Historic District was founded and constructed between 1887 to 1948 in Northeast Hartford, CT. The district’s factory complex, called Swift Factory, consisted of five interconnected buildings and two historic residences. The Swift Factory once functioned as the home of the M. Swift & Sons Company throughout its over one-hundred-year story, making it a significant component of the City’s industrial heritage. Over its history, the products manufactured at the site included gold and silver leaf, hot dye stamping foils, and gold plating products.

Once a hub of economic vitality for the community, the factory was eventually closed and has been vacant for more than a decade. A new vision for revitalization is now emerging. Together with local residents and community organizers, nonprofit Community Solutions is redeveloping the complex to capitalize on the assets of the community and address needs for high quality jobs and community services.

The Bowery project consists of six previously city-owned buildings along Akron’s downtown corridor. Among them stands the 158-foot-tall Landmark Building at the corner of Main and Bowery, which opened in 1923 as the Akron Savings & Loan Company. One of the more prominent buildings in the district, it was designed by New York architect Alfred Hopkins, who at the time was primarily known for his economical, yet complex approach to architecture, as well as his specialization in farming complexes. The buildings are located at the center of Akron’s South Main Street Historic District and played a major role in establishing the area as Akron’s primary commercial district – particularly in the rubber industry. The city of Akron was the birthplace of Goodrich, Firestone, and General Tire.

The other buildings included in the revitalization project consist of various historic shops and office buildings that once housed furniture showrooms, doctors, and jewelers, but have since sat vacant for over two decades. The Akron Civic Theater, located a few doors down from the Landmark Building, was the blocks only heartbeat for nearly twenty years.

Originally a railroad industry town during and after the Civil War, by the 1920s, Martinsburg, West Virginia became a leader in textile manufacturing, with large commercial businesses rapidly opening in the downtown corridor. The former Shenandoah Hotel is the only surviving building of its kind in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The building itself sits on the site of the Blondel Mansion, which was constructed in the early 1800s by the plantation owner and Haitian Revolution refugee Anthony Blondel. The home was purchased for $45,000 in 1923 after his death and subsequently torn down. Local community investors raised $600,000 to build the Shenandoah Hotel, a luxurious 104-key boutique hotel that opened to the public on George Washington’s birthday, February 22, 1926. Located in the heart of Martinsburg, the hotel became a cornerstone of Martinsburg’s social scenes, making it a popular destination for tourists and celebrities.

The hotel featured a “Crystal Dining Room” which could seat up to 175 people and a “Gold Ball Room” for dancing and events. The spaces were specifically designed to complement guests’ gowns. The hotel also included a coffee shop and six rentable storefronts that faced Queen Street and two storefronts that faced Martin Street. The hotel eventually changed hands and became the Gateway Inn during the 1960s, where it remained for about 20 years. However, transfers in ownership eventually saw the permanent closing of the hotel space and the eventual shuttering of the first-floor commercial use. The building has remained largely vacant since.

The original Franklin Street post office headquarters and processing center was built in 1936 and provided the vast majority of postal distribution services for the Houston area. In 1960, the building was renovated and expanded in the Brutalist style that defines the majority of the existing building by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson, the architects who spearheaded the creation of the Houston Astrodome. In 1984, the building was named after Barbara Jordan, the first African American state senator since 1883 and the first black woman to serve in that body. The USPS put the building up for sale and issued an RFP for its redevelopment during the peak of the 2009 financial crisis. Lovett Commercial, the project sponsor, purchased the building in 2015 and began the revitalization efforts.

The building that would become the Rail & Commerce building was originally built in 1925 as a three-story sorting facility for the United States Postal Service’s (“USPS”) Railway Mail Service (“RMS”). Located along the former Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, the facility was designed by W.T. Krausch, an engineer who worked for the railroad. The RMS played a central role in America’s postal system from the Civil War through the 1970s.

The RMS reached its height in the 1930s before succumbing to a gradual decline induced by shifts to airline and truck mail transport. The slowly diminishing importance of the RMS led to a declining demand for the Omaha sorting facility building. In 1956 the USPS converted the building from a sorting facility into a storage facility, and then finally abandoned the building in the mid-1970s. Prior to its current renovation, the building had largely remained vacant since the USPS’ departure and at one time was slated for demolition and condemned by the City of Omaha.

In the 1880s, the founding members of Angier Avenue Baptist held Sunday school classes out of a “small wooden structure known as the Oak Grove School.” At this time, East Durham had not yet been incorporated into the city of Durham. It was a separate town with its own officials and did not yet have electricity, running water, or paved streets. In search of a permanent location for the church, the founders decided that the intersection of Angier Avenue and Driver Street would be the location for their new church. It was completed in 1889 and lit with kerosene lamps and heated with coal-burning stoves. The sanctuary was further expanded in 1924 and remained a community fixture for nearly a century.

The project also includes the revitalization of three additional storefront buildings lining the central thoroughfare. They’ve hosted many local businesses since they were originally constructed in the 1920s but have been vacant or underutilized for years. The parish experienced declining memberships in recent years, and the building was purchased along with the neighboring buildings by Self-Help Credit Union, a locally headquartered member-owned mission-driven credit union, nonprofit loan fund, and policy advocacy organization.