Renovating A $90K Abandoned School Into Apartments | Unlocked

Adam Colucci, Jesse Wig and Dan Spanovich bought a second abandoned school in Homestead, Pennsylvania for $90,000 and turned it into a 33-unit apartment building. The renovation cost about $4.5 million and took 18 months to complete. The trio's first abandoned school-turned-apartment building, Bowtie High, is located right across the street.

Unlocked is a home tour series focused on how much people across the globe spend on their housing, what they get for the money and what they had to sacrifice to make it happen.

Produced by: Valentina Duarte
Managing Producer: Beatriz Bajuelos
Supervising Producer: Jessica Leibowitz
Camera: Malhari Media
Editor: Marisa Forziati
Animator: Elham Ataeiazar
Additional Footage: Adam Colucci, Daniel Spanovich, Jesse Wig

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Renovating A $90K Abandoned School Into Apartments | Unlocked

[mariapaz]

the best part of these projects, is that they are buying abandoned buildings that would have no other use. These people are not buying lots of new homes, they are building spaces and restoring historical buildings. Truly great work

[eattherich]

@0:28, I like that the exterior was cleaned up just enough. Doing all that work in only 18 months is impressive. I love the stairs.

[CM-qvmz]

Love how Adam went from an airball in the Bowtie High ep. to hitting the cushion on the 8 ball in this Schwab ep. Consistency👌

[Dad-in-WA]

Saw the previous episode on their first build. Huge hurdle to overcome and they did it! Looks great. Thanks for sharing

[jontalbot]

These men will make a fortune. There are so many abandoned buildings in the US suitable for conversion

[dixieknox]

What a great job! I am 84 years old and all my adult life I have walked through areas that needed restoration, I wanted to do this so bad it was so important to me, so I became an apartment manager, and they gave me a property that could not be raised up, but I did itI think you boys are wonderful.

[EdInThePNW]

Cool way to increase housing density while respecting some classic architecture--way to go!

[stevenkeller]

You guys do great work. Thanks for saving and improving these buildings. Happy to hear they work out for your business model as well.

[michaelreece]

Both of these schools are an amazing new use of space. What a way to add value back to the community. Great job guys.

[brendasaunders]

Renovation, New life.. old stories bought to these buildings A thought a dream coming to reality so heartwarming to see

[RadThings]

Beautiful renovations. I love how they keep some of the original pieces as part of the renovations.

[Rashaadthegr]

I need two rich friends. I want to get into something like this!

[GradyLewis-wdms]

Thank you for preserving these historic buildings.

[Shawn-Leider]

I used to know a guy who inherited an old school building it was so neat. My friends room was literally the old gym. It was a crazy place but not remodeled in The slightest yet so his room was honestly a basketball court but I still loved it

[Brian-osqj]

Nice work guys. The ‘style’ is preserved, and that was needed for historic value alone. Cheers to yall

[mndlessdrwer]

It would be nice if the rooftop decks could be expanded into multiple private gathering areas with those light control fabric coverings. As it is, there's not quite enough space for 33 units worth of residents to utilize it. Still, the renovations have turned out spectacularly. I think the only thing they really need to do now is to hire a team of expert building cleaners to go over the exterior and remove as much of the staining and grime from the brick and concrete without damaging it. It isn't just a matter of power-washing the exterior, as the pressure needed to get the grime off through power washing alone is also enough to damage the mortar between the bricks.

[zeth]

90 k for a builidng is a steal. Turned out really cool.

[agentmaryland]

And you know, for the quality of the apartments, $1, 400-$1, 500 ain't a bad deal! The problem a lot of places see is out of town 'investors' buying up cheap, run down apartments, doing bare bones maintenance (or none at all) and turning around and jacking up the price by 40-60%+ for crappy, unsafe, unkept apartments that should have been torn down. But these are gorgeous, spacy, and well worth the price.

[remmiallimacse]

now this is cool. very smart and got it done well.

[piluchi]

Awesome! ❤ I love the motivation of theses guys because I love historical buildings, they are doing a great and not easy job, congrats!!! I'm looking forward to see their next projects!