After struggling to find a profitable use for the former Mercyhurst North East campus, the current owners are floating the idea of housing illegal immigrants as a way to recover their investment. By contrast, in Homestead, PA, near Pittsburgh, three individual investors bought an old abandoned school building and turned it into Bowtie High containing 31 beautiful apartments and the income from those rentals is enabling them to buy another school across the street where they’ll do the same thing.
The old main buildings at Granite Ridge are in very good condition, unlike what the Homestead investors had to start with, which was a rundown and crumbling interior. The transformation is amazing and the apartments were fully occupied within 6 months at $1400 per month for a one bedroom and $1600 for a two bedroom.
Just like Granite Ridge, they had a lot of old and interesting architecture which adds to the look and feel of the building and being an historical landmark, they were able to get tax credits from Pennsylvania and the federal government.
What’s amazing is that the Granite Ridge buildings seem far more amenable to a conversion than the example in Homestead, plus the property here has much more to offer, multiple commercial kitchens with one specifically set up for baking, classrooms, labs and on the upper floor, facilities used in the nursing program which could be easily converted into an on-site medical office with exam rooms and even a multi-bed patient area. Elsewhere there’s a fully functional cafeteria with serving line, a 100 seat theater, a large recreational area formerly used for the student union, a weight room, a gorgeous basketball court with bleachers and much, much more.
Just to be very clear, the old main buildings need a lot of work to convert them for whatever use is proposed and a sizable investment will be necessary, but no one could have looked at the property before purchase and thought otherwise.
In a recent conversation with Bill Unger, the current property manager, it was obvious he’s made a serious effort to come up with potential ideas for development, but no one person can generate as many ideas as crowdsourcing from an entire community. The North East community has not offered their thoughts because everyone was under the impression that Granite Ridge was going to become a sports based facility like the SPIRE Institute in Ohio, but according to Unger, that was never promised, so while we sat back and waited, nothing was built and now, the prospect of a detention facility is being proposed.
Granite Ridge, if they are interested in being a positive asset to our community, must immediately stop thinking along those lines. The property is so central to North East it would be an absolute travesty to use it to house illegal immigrants for the federal government, with all of the collateral effects it would spread, but on our part, saying no, isn’t enough.
Be sure to watch this video
We need great ideas
The above example from Homestead, PA is just one. It may not be directly applicable in every way, but it certainly shows what some out of the box thinking can do. With all of the brainpower we have as a community, there could be some real idea gems out there, so what do you say? What are your ideas for what Granite Ridge could or should become?
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Glenn Craig says
A very nice alternative to what they are hoping to be able to do! Not if I can help it. Stand up now or fall for anything
Janelle says
well done article……I agree!
Alyssa says
A portion of it could be apartments for strictly senior citizens. Not senior care, like Parkside, but actual 2 bedroom apts. Redemptorist seemed to have started out as seniors but now has kids and young adults. It would have been a perfect senior apt building.
Matthew says
North East needs a lot of help and a lot of fresh leadership. You can start with the no turning on red before 7pm. Get out of the dark ages, nothing stays open barely past 6 – 8 pm. Most people don’t even get home from work until 6 or 7 pm. You need to bring business into the town not scare them away or force them out. A little diversity in the town would be a good thing, bring jobs, etc . It may even bring some people who actually want to work and want a job and work hard at their job.
Amy says
These are unaccompanied minors, not illegal immigrants. There is a difference – the first is a factual statement, the other inflammatory language which is not useful to the discussion.
Paul Crowe says
Illegal immigrant is an accurate and descriptive statement. Anyone who is coming into the country is an immigrant. If they come in without going through proper channels, just walking across the border, they’ve broken the law. That means they are here illegally, hence “illegal immigrant.”
Some people like yourself have simply decided that the term isn’t to your liking, so you state it’s inflammatory. It is not. It’s factual and accurate.
Janelle says
Again, I agree. And, if the thinking is that this are little children, I highly doubt it. It’s very possible that the ages will be in the late teens and early 20’s – hence barbed wire fences, etc.
Anonymous says
Anybody ever think to develop a Pennsylvania school for winemaking at the sight? Talk about maximizing our area’s potential.
Denny Kershner says
Paul, you are spot on! What does unaccompanied mean anyway and why are they “unaccompanied?” Their parents are either detained or deported. They broke the law. Thus the kids are illegally accompanied or unaccompanied, period.
Listen, we are all immigrants to this country at one time or another, but my family went through Ellis Island like most legal immigrants have. I welcome all who follow the rules. Not interested in any form of lawlessness. If this country wants to establish a legal means for mass immigration for political or humane causes, then change the law and have a well established vetting process to protect our national security. This crisis has been totally created for political gain, hoping to secure future votes.
Rodney E Blystone says
Even dormitories wouldn’t be an issue; they weren’t when Mercyhurst was operating the campus. Also, having administrators living in North East was a big plus. Gary Brown and Jim Lanahan were good problem solvers. When college students were living in the two new dorms near the north east corner of the campus (intersection of Route 89 and Sunset Drive), the students living there would occasionally be noisy when they returned to their rooms about 2 a.m. I happened to run into Brown and Lanahan at a event and mentioned this to them. There response was simple, they just had the dorm supervisors stay on duty until 2 a.m. The problem went away immediately.
Joe Activist says
It always amuses me how people are fooled with government propaganda and euphenisms,
Like the Federal Reserve that isnt federal and has no reserves, or the Patriot Act and Homeland Security which is directed inward at everything we do or say online. Unaccompanied minor is another trick to minimized the illegal invasion by the third world by dropping minors at the border (for drug cartels services or fee) to cross into our country being use as a “ticket” to bring in their parents once established with a host or relative already here. It is all a scam, it is all ILLEGAL it is child trafficing and a mockery of immigration laws. These are not refugees fleeing danger,they are economic invaders that are coached how to beat the system (see video) and anyone that cant figure that out by now is part of the problem.
https://youtu.be/OS0cK8bPcSk
Mary says
If people remember a year ago the government brought I a number of “uncompanied” children
They were flyed in at dads and brought by buses to the old dormatories at the Soccer complex up by the Mall. The complex was owned by one of the Renauds . The amount Mr Renaud was very hihigh amount for every child
Of course no one did there. Homework because there was so many things wrong. Food service was poor , toilets not workable, the caregivers hired were not qualified and many more problems. The day before Mike Kelly was to visit
there was another bus-airport that most of children were removed… to where nobody knows
Northeast residents should be vigilant to what owners and supervisors may agree to.