Variance brings apartments a step closer

NORFOLK — A building that has been derelict for more than a decade may have received a new lease on life Thursday.

A use variance was given to Norwood businessman Donald J. Colbert Jr. to renovate the former Norfolk Elementary School. If Mr. Colbert's plan comes to fruition, the building will turn into 14 apartments, nine self-storage units and a space for his business, Cornerstone Services.

"My wife went to school there, and we were hoping we could do something with a property that was left to fall apart and make it a viable building again and get it back on the tax rolls," Mr. Colbert said.

The variance will allow Mr. Colbert to build a commercial space in a residential district.

Now that he has the Norfolk Zoning Board of Appeals' blessing, he will move ahead with his dream for the moldering brick school at 13 Hepburn St.

But it won't happen overnight.

"That's going to be completely dictated by our economy, which we know changes month to month," he said. "I would like to have everything done within the next 10 years."

Work already has begun to repair damage to the school's roof. Mr. Colbert estimates he has invested about $70,000 on new roofing to combat leaks since buying the building a year ago.

The town's OK was the final approval Mr. Colbert needed. The St. Lawrence County Planning Board approved the plan for the lot last week.

"It would be quite an aggressive reuse of the building," said Jason C. Pfotenhauer, deputy director of the county planning office. "We have a lot of these abandoned schools around, and what happens with these old buildings is they sometimes burn down, like we saw in Norwood."

The project comes with a big price tag. The construction will cost about $1 million, Mr. Colbert said. Though he has not ruled out applying for grants or other aid, he said that for now, the entire project is being funded with his own money.

Mr. Colbert's idea is not new. There were attempts to transform the school into apartments in the late 1990s.

In 1998, the district sold the school to Michael D. Walsh, Potsdam, who intended to turn the old school into apartments, offices and business space by 2001. However, the plan never got off the ground and the building continued its descent into disrepair.

"If we could see this fly, it would be quite something," Mr. Pfotenhauer said.

Norfolk Elementary School closed in 1995, when the Norwood-Norfolk Central School District consolidated and moved the elementary classes into the high school building.