The old Ardmore High School building on North Washington Street has sat empty for decades. If plans hold, it'll soon have a new crowd walking its halls, this time coming home from work instead of heading to class.
On Sept. 21, the Ardmore City Commission voted 5-0 to approve a conditional use permit allowing multifamily housing in the building at 215 North Washington Street, which sits in the city's Commercial Downtown zoning district. The vote came after a public hearing where, according to the city's meeting minutes, no one showed up to speak for or against the plan.
The request came from Laura Trevino on behalf of the property owners, FR and Nelly Vasquez. The city's planning commission had already voted 8-0 on Sept. 10 to recommend approval.
36 apartments in a century-old school
According to KXII, the plan calls for 36 apartment units.
"She wants to have multi-family living in it. 36 apartment units is what's proposed at this time," Jessica Scott, Ardmore's community development director, told the station ahead of the vote.
Plans include solar panels for electricity, a parking lot for tenants and possible use of the old gym. Just as important, the plan is to repair the century-old building rather than tear it down and replace it.
"It'll still give it that look, which I think is amazing. It'll be an old building with a new purpose. A new life," Scott said.
Scott said the lack of opposition at the planning commission meeting told her something. "At the meeting on Thursday, nobody came to protest. I really do think this is something the community is standing behind," she said.
What happens next
With the permit approved, the owner can apply for a construction permit and start building once it's issued, KXII reported. The city's community development office said plans show the work could be finished within a year of construction starting.
Scott said the project fills a real gap in town. "We always need housing, we always need rentals and I think this is a unique rental situation," she said. She added that it should draw people who want to live downtown and be able to walk to things.
Neither the city nor the news coverage has named a general contractor for the job, and we aren't naming one here. No construction cost has been made public, either.
Old school buildings like this one often sit close to downtown, have solid bones and come with the kind of character that's hard to build from scratch. They also tend to come with their share of surprises once the walls are opened up. For the owner, the payoff is a building with a story behind it. For the folks doing the work, it's a chance to bring a landmark back to life on a street that people in Ardmore drive past every day.
Why it matters for Contractors
A school-to-apartment conversion is a very different job from building new. The structure is already there, but nearly everything inside it has to change. Contractors can expect interior demolition and likely abatement work, new plumbing, electrical and HVAC throughout, fire protection, new walls to carve classrooms into apartments, plus windows, roofing repairs, masonry work and finishes. Solar panels add another trade to the mix, and reusing the old gym could mean its own set of structural and finish work.
Older buildings like this one reward contractors who know how to work around what's already there. Crews with experience in renovation, historic masonry or tricky retrofits will have an edge over those who mostly build on bare dirt. Contractors should also plan for the unknowns that come with a building this old, and price their bids with that in mind.
The one-year timeline is tight for a building this size, so the owner will need trades who can show up and stay on schedule. Local contractors in Ardmore and southern Oklahoma who want in should keep an eye out for the construction permit and reach out early.
If this project goes well, it could also show other owners of empty downtown buildings what's possible. Ardmore's commission moved the request from the planning commission vote to final approval in less than two weeks, with no one speaking against it. That's the kind of smooth process that can encourage other owners to bring their own downtown buildings forward.