Jamestown planners review Gateway Center adaptive‑reuse for 110 affordable and supportive units

Jamestown Planning Commission members heard a presentation March 4 on the Gateway Center adaptive‑reuse project that would convert part of an existing building into 110 affordable and supportive housing units, roughly 56 reserved for persons with special needs and 54 for low‑ to moderate‑income tenants.

The project sponsor and consultants told the planning commission the site is enrolled in a Brownfield cleanup program with an estimated $3,000,000 remediation budget, that the building is listed as a contributing structure on state and national historic registers and will be rehabilitated to Department of the Interior standards to qualify for historic tax credits, and that the renovated building will be all‑electric with contemplated rooftop solar.

The project team, represented by project sponsor Stephen Ault, project attorney Lindsay Carpenter (Phillips Slidell), architect Joe Gibbons (SWBR) and engineers from GPI, said they provided full site and landscape plans to the city and are seeking new approvals because prior approvals from 2018–2020 and subsequent extensions have lapsed. Carpenter said the plans submitted to the commission are unchanged from the earlier approvals except for coordination with a redesigned culvert alignment and new culvert connections.

Why it matters: the plan aims both to preserve a locally important historic structure and to add a significant number of subsidized units and supportive services at a single downtown site. Planning commissioners and members of the public raised questions about parking, stormwater and utilities, long‑term tax and mitigation arrangements, and on‑site services and operations.

Key project details and approvals - Units: 110 total; about 56 units reserved for persons with special needs; about 54 units for low‑ to moderate‑income households (project team language). - Site improvements: demolition of two…