Neighbors in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood have been frustrated by 1942 Christian St. for years, wondering when the vacant building would come back into active use. We first wondered about this property four years ago, at which point it had already been sitting vacant for a couple of years. In the past, the first floor housed some kind of social services office called the Family Resource Center, and the upper floors contained apartments. Though it was sitting empty, the building had wonderful bones and we were cautiously optimistic that it would eventually get renovated. When a neighbor noticed an interior demo crew at the property in August of 2012, we were feeling confident that a renovation was imminent.
Not so much. We've noticed work taking place here intermittently, but it's been nearly four years since we heard about a crew over here and the building remains unoccupied. It seems tough, that the pace has picked up considerably in the last few months, and looking at the facade it seems like work has progressed quite a bit. The doors at the corner have been sealed, leaving one remaining door on the southern side of the building. The bay has been repaired or replaced, and it looks like all the windows are new. From what we can tell looking at the permits, the building will have three apartment units once the construction finishes up.
We're pretty sure that the building is owned by the Regis Group, the same company that owns Saint Anthony's Senior Center and the Artist Village Apartments on the 1700 block of Fitzwater Street. This company owns many affordable units but they also own market rate properties, so we can't speak to which we'll see at the corner of 20th & Christian. We'd guess that to people living nearby, it's an academic question, as it'll just be wonderful to see this slow moving project finally cross the finish line.