From classrooms to rental units in Chikaming Township

CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- An old school building may become an apartment complex in Harbert, part of Chikaming Township. The River Valley School District is working with a local farm owner to turn classrooms into rental units.

ABC57 brought you a similar story in New Buffalo just last week. The school district there is looking to give land to developers to build workforce housing.

It shows how this is happening all over Berrien County, especially in Harbor Country, where the land is gorgeous and many purchase properties to capitalize, but then "locals" end up feeling priced out.

A local farm owner, though, is looking to repurpose what was an elementary school just last year and turn it into what the community needs: affordable housing.

“It is one of our biggest challenges. Our property valuations and cost of living here is extremely high,” said David Bunte, Chikaming Township supervisor. “You can get a home, but it’s the price range where the problem is.”

“There’s a lot of people who would like to live in this area but just cannot afford to because the cost of housing has gone up so much in the last 10 years,” said Dave Campbell, River Valley School District superintendent.

This can lead to a declining school population.

“Our student population is down substantially, and one of the big reasons that our student population is down, as many districts in southern Berrien County, is the high cost of housing,” Campbell said.

It also leads to declining workforce retention.

“We struggle with retaining a lot of public safety personnel, and all the surrounding businesses in our area to retain great quality talent, because they have to travel a distance in order to get here,” Bunte said.

River Valley Schools got a bid of $385,000 for the purchase of Chikaming Elementary School, vacant just one year after the school moved locations.

“Rob [Buono] is the owner of Granor Farm. Very active community member; he’s done a great job building up the Granor Farm complex,” Campbell said. “We are just so pleased that he wants to transform this school into attainable housing.”

So far, the seed has only been planted. Bunte said the buyer, Rob Buono, met with the township to talk about options, so now they are waiting for site plans and such proposals from Buono.