Living in a pool? Former Youth Building apartments get upgrades, with nods to past

Looking out over neighboring C.W. Post Field, Nikolas Kehr took his dog, "Whiskey" out for a walk on a sunny mid-week afternoon and was soon surrounded by young neighbors who wanted to meet his pup.

The Flat Rock native is a pilot-in-training at the Western Michigan University College of Aviation in Battle Creek, and said he and his roommate were looking for an affordable place to live near the airport campus that would allow pets. He found a home at 115 West apartments.

"We moved in at the end of July. We weren’t sure what to expect," Kehr said. "We were looking around different apartment listings and this popped up last minute so we took a tour. It’s actually pretty cool. They still have the tile and everything from the old pool."

The downtown Battle Creek apartment complex was once the place of swimming and other recreation as a Boys Club and later Youth Building, before years of neglect left it fated for demolition. The Gothic-style recreation building was saved from being razed by community members in the 1990s, and in 2003 was converted into an income-based affordable housing complex called Village at Irving Park.

In 2019, Grand Rapids-based American Preferred Management took over management of the building, since remodeling and rebranding it into market-rate one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment complex called 115 West.

Despite a number of recent renovations, the 94-year-old building still features echoes from its past.

"The bones are solid and it's got a really cool background," said Ramona Nantz, vice president at American Preferred Management and a Marshall native. “We had to do things to the building that aren’t pretty, but necessary. And we left everything original, but did some cosmetic stuff. New flooring, new kitchen cabinets, quartz countertops and granite. We don’t want to price out of Battle Creek either. We want to be the guy in the middle."

Becoming 115 West

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, the property was purchased by VIP Battle Creek Apts LLC in 2019 for $1.5 million, according to city records. There will be 38 units in the complex when renovations are complete, with 23 apartments in the original building and 15 three-bedroom apartments in the addition that was built in 2003.

Nantz said residents who live their under the federal income-based affordable housing program can recertify once their leases are up, but would pay rent at the current rates.

Due to the property being part of the federal housing program and supply chain disruptions related to the pandemic, Nantz said there were delays in updating the building. One of the biggest and first investments under the new ownership was a new chiller system, as the building previously lacked air conditioning.

Currently, the apartment complex is at 97% occupancy, with only a one-bedroom loft available, listed between $880 and $950 a month. It has an open floor space and is located within a section of the former pool, complete with depth markers and an old pool deck converted into a loft.

There are plans to add a fitness center by early 2023 and other improvements to the common area and patio facing West Street.

Inside the front lobby are original floors. An iron "Youth Building" sign hangs after it was discovered in the basement of the property. The first hallway that residents and guests encounter includes original bleachers.

A gift from W.K. Kellogg

In 1926, Kellogg Co. founder W.K. Kellogg anonymously donated $150,000 to build a "Boys Club" adjacent to Irving Park as a gift to the city. Two years later, it was turned over to Boy Scouts for upkeep.

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he city took over operation of the building in 1937 and purchased it in 1950. The first organized indoor floor hockey games are said to have originated there in 1962, the creation of city recreation employee Thomas Harter. Leroy Sparks, known as "the father of swimming" in Battle Creek, taught countless youths how to swim and trained All-American swimmers in the recreation building's pool.

After years of neglect and the rising costs to maintain the property, the city parks and recreation department left the building in 1988, leaving it vacated. It was slated to be demolished and turned into Battle Creek Public Schools tennis courts in 1995, but local community members objected. Five years later, the city invested $400,000 to repair its roof before a Florida-based company purchased it for $200,000 and converted it into an apartment complex.

A sign commemorating Sparks still hangs above the community room, where pictures on a wall serve as a reminder of the building's previous life as a recreation hub.

“When I first came down to see the building, I wondered through all of the building," Nantz said. "The ceilings are high, so there's tons of natural sunlight. The views of the field are pretty cool. This building is amazing."

Contact reporter Nick Buckley at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Historic former Youth Building apartments in Battle Creek get upgrades