Renovating an occupied apartment building is one of the trickiest jobs in the business. Doing it for 204 seniors and people with disabilities, and getting each apartment done in two to three days, takes real planning.
That's what the Gene B. Glick Company says it pulled off at Carriage House Glendale, a federally subsidized community of one-bedroom apartments on the northeast side of Indianapolis. In an Oct. 1 announcement, the Indianapolis-based company said it finished an $8.8 million renovation of the property, investing more than $43,000 per unit.
Glick built Carriage House Glendale in 1978, so the company was renovating its own work nearly half a century later. The company calls the project a public-private partnership meant to keep those 204 homes affordable and in good shape for decades to come.
"Every completed preservation project represents important progress toward narrowing Indiana's affordable housing gap," said David Barrett, chairman, president and CEO of Glick. "Preserving communities like Carriage House Glendale allows us to protect affordable homes that already exist while improving quality of life for the people who call them home."
Two to three days a unit
The approach is the story here for contractors. The renovation used CRG Residential's RAPID Occupied Renovation process, which completed construction on each apartment in two to three days so residents could return quickly to a finished home.
That's a lot to fit into a short window. According to Glick, each unit received:
- Kitchen and bathroom upgrades, including new cabinets, countertops, sinks, appliances and a bathtub
- New flooring through the entry, kitchen, bath and dining areas
- New interior and exterior doors, windows and HVAC units
- Electrical updates, including new electrical panels and light fixtures
Of the 204 apartments, 21 were updated to meet current ADA standards, and five were designed for residents with hearing or visual disabilities.
The work didn't stop at the unit doors. The property also got new roofing, gutters, shingles and balcony railings, along with updates to the community rooms, leasing office and elevators.
How it was financed
The renovation was paid for with a familiar preservation stack. The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority allocated multifamily tax-exempt bonds and 4% low-income housing tax credits. PNC arranged the equity investments, and Merchants Capital Corp. provided permanent lending and construction financing.
Glick says the need is plain. Citing the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the company said Indiana has only 34 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income households, a shortage of 138,137 rental homes. Glick says that gap is why preserving existing units matters alongside building new ones.
This isn't Glick's first rodeo. Since 2017, the company says it has completed rehabilitations at 14 communities nationwide, preserving 2,688 affordable apartments, 2,181 of them in Indiana. In September, it received a Recognition of Housing Tax Credit Excellence award in the HUD Preservation category from the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition for its work at Briarwood of Lexington, a senior and disability community in Lexington, Kentucky.
The building also serves as a hub for residents across the region. Glick employs a resident service coordinator at Carriage House Glendale, funded by a HUD grant, and the property houses a resource hub where coordinators from across Central Indiana can pick up food, hygiene products, diapers and wipes, bus passes and shoes for their residents.
"Supporting residents is at the core of our mission," said Ceceily Cliff, Glick's director of resident success.
Why it matters for Contractors
Occupied renovation is a growing slice of affordable housing work, and Carriage House Glendale shows what owners expect: a full kitchen and bath, flooring, doors, windows, HVAC and an electrical panel swap in two to three days per unit, with residents waiting to come home. That pace only works with tight sequencing, pre-staged materials and trades that can hand off cleanly, from plumbers and electricians to cabinet installers, flooring crews and HVAC techs. Add roofing, gutters, balcony railings, elevator upgrades and ADA conversions, and it's a job that touches nearly every trade. With 4% credits and tax-exempt bonds continuing to fund preservation deals across Indiana, and Glick alone reporting 14 rehabs since 2017, contractors who can work fast and clean in occupied buildings have a real market to chase.