CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — “What is going on at the old school on Queen Street?” is a question developer Vern McKissick has encountered frequently on social media.

Behind the grand white columns that front the neoclassical building in the heart of Chambersburg, the project known as Live and Work @ Central has been in the works for the better part of a decade.

It is a sister development to Rose Rent Lofts, the town’s original high-school-turned-apartment-building that opened in the fall of 2020. The history is a bit complicated, because both buildings were constructed decades apart before being combined in 1958 into a massive city-block structure — a school known as Central Junior High. After closing in 1986, it sat vacant for four decades until McKissick presented a vision to peel back layers of history and redevelop the structure as downtown housing.

After significant time was spent removing asbestos and addressing other environmental hazards, the classrooms, bathrooms, hallways and most other spaces in the school at the corner of Queen and Third streets have been divided up into residential units. A recent tour of the maze of steel and drywall revealed glimpses of original elements, such as the tiled bathroom floors and hardwood hallways that run side by side through some units.

If all goes to McKissick’s plan, Live and Work @ Central will be finished before the end of the year at a cost of about $10 million.

As a “destination live-work” complex, it’s geared toward professionals who want to work where they live but desire a separate environment where they can focus.

Most of the 18 residential units are loft-style apartments that will be leased to tenants who live there full-time. There are studios, one-bedroom units and potential two-bedroom units (if a loft is used as a room). The nature of the redevelopment means that no two are alike.

Live and Work @ Central will also offer four corporate apartments for short-term lease. Looking out from the front of the building, each unit ranging from 1,200 to 2,500 square feet will have a fully furnished living space connected by a spiral staircase to a professional office space.

“We’re definitely targeting destination office, which in this day and age is about people that are small operations, but they have a lot of folks working from home,” said Kristen McKissick, Vern’s wife and an interior designer. “But they need to bring everybody together occasionally.”

She said they first learned about the live-work concept in San Francisco, which was “trying to cultivate more affordable ways for businesses to come into neighborhoods.”

“So, the concept was that if you lived where you worked, your business had a lease but that you were living and using the business’ heat and their utilities and so on, so you were able to afford a lot of those living expenses tax-free because they’re under the business expense,” she said. “And then you’re sort of sub-renting your own personal living area from your own business. And that would be enough of a break on your expenses to keep you going through the ups and downs and whatnot.”

With Chambersburg located in a “hub zone,” the McKissicks hope the units will attract federal contractors and other professionals from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

“We’re hoping some of the people frustrated with Virginia price tags and taxes will come up and enjoy it here,” Kristen McKissick added. “We’ll have a lot of urban features. We’ll have fiber, probably an EV charger.”

The plan for Live and Work @ Central always included a live-work element, but interest in corporate apartments at Rose Rent Lofts showed the McKissicks they had dug into a local gold mine.

“It’s the executives from Volvo and doctors that are here part-time from WellSpan Health, surgeons and oncologists, and things like that, that Chambersburg (Hospital) borrows part-time or brings here to train because they’re the corporate headquarters,” Kristen McKissick said.

Some units have been unofficially leased out, and the McKissicks estimate the residential phase will be done in June. Attention will immediately turn to transforming the old auditorium into the “business columns.”

The layout will include a few conference rooms, including a sunken one in the former orchestra pit and one surrounded by soundproof “smart glass.”

“So, if you’re looking at the stage, that conference room would be soundproof and it would have the smart glass in it, so you could have the privacy if you needed,” Kristen McKissick said. “It could be signed out by tenants.”

The space will stay big and bright, with giant curved windows looking out onto Queen Street. Vern McKissick also plans to keep some of the historic design elements visible under plexiglass or something similar.

“We’re probably going to leave some of the ruin, clean it, seal it and let it show what 100 years of patina looks like,” he said.

Live and Work @ Central will also have a green roof, and a cafe tentatively called “Act III on Main.”

“A place for adults” that is not a bar and offers a quiet environment conducive to conversation, Vern McKissick said.

It will have a theater theme, and design elements will be changed out every six months or so to represent a new “show,” Kristen McKissick explained.

The timeline and tilt of the project have changed in the years since ground was broken in 2017. The project that is now Live and Work @ Central was once supposed to have classrooms and other spaces that organizations and businesses could use, according to reporting in the Public Opinion in 2019. A cafe built on the stage in the auditorium was once supposed to be the first part finished.

The COVD-19 pandemic changed that.

“Originally we thought that the commercial part would be the biggest and first in demand,” Kristen McKissick said. “When COVID came along, we made sure that almost all the suites could be converted to residential if things didn’t come back, and that we could make sure that we could lease them separately. On the other hand, we didn’t really back away from the commercial piece. We just were trying to make sure we had a plan that it didn’t have to go all commercial.”

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Chambersburg Public Opinion and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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