Neenah's Marathon Flats redevelops office space into living facility for residents 55 & up

Source: WLUK
Author: Brady Meyer

(NEENAH) -- To help with the ongoing housing shortage, one developer is getting creative with its newest northeast Wisconsin facility.

"After COVID we had the opportunity to purchase this building from Kimberly Clark corporation so it's about 150 thousand square feet all on one level," Park Place Holdings Director of Development Corey Vanevenhoven said.

The Marathon Flats complex will officially open in Neenah in July. The project turned a former home of hundreds of Kimberly Clark employees into a home for older residents.

"Price point was a big concern and again the building being on one level was a big draw just with no steps, no stairs, issues that a lot of seniors might deal with," Vanevenhoven said.

Park Place Holdings of De Pere bought about 20 acres of land which includes the building. The conversion is now complete, after around two years of construction.

"We tried to value engineer it as much as possible, reuse windows," Vanevenhoven said. "We recycled most of the building. So we worked with Habitat for Humanity, we scrapped a lot of the items that were in the building."

And there could be more to come.

"If things go well in the future we could put some additional buildings up on some of the additional property here as well," Vanevenhoven said.

On Thursday, Neenah Mayor Jane Lang along with other city officials took their first look.

"It's reusing a building that has great history as part of a company in this community that has incredible history, so I love that," Lang said.

Lang said she's impressed with the outcome for a number of reasons. First, the redevelopment of an existing building...

"I love adaptive reuse of buildings and it's just, it's really a great thing for the community," Lang said.

Along with the challenge it's aiming to address.

"Definitely there's a need for 55 and up housing and Neenah so we're very appreciative of the developers and the work they did here," Lang said. "They did a fantastic job."

The building is now worth an estimated $17.5 million. The initial sale was for just under $4 million.