Print edition: 
The building at 206 E. 18th St. could hardly be more different now than it was eight months ago.
Foutch Brothers of Weatherby Lake, Mo. – a firm that specializes in historic renovations around the region – gutted and renovated the decrepit 36-unit apartment building at 18th and Market into a sparkling 25-unit apartment for low-income seniors called Market Street Lofts. Originally called the Fairview Apartments, it was built in 1924.
It will hold its official opening Dec. 14 at 11 a.m. but is already signing rental contracts.
Because the project is largely paid for with tax credits, the company is required to set the rents below market rate. One-bedroom units are 550 to 987 square feet and rent for $400 or $450 a month. The two-bedroom units are 900 to 1,124 square feet and rent for $550 a month. There is a laundry room on every floor, a community room and an elevator, but only some on-site parking.
Market rates, according to a 2011 survey of rents in Wichita by Savage Inc., are about $485 to $533 for one-bedroom units and $595 to $668 for two-bedroom units. Newly renovated units would tend toward the higher end of those ranges.
Tenants at the Market Street Lofts must be 55 years old or older. Income for a single tenant cannot exceed $26,940 year; for a couple, incomes cannot exceed $30,780 per year.
A tour showed the building is nearly complete, with workmen doing the finish work of painting stair railings and installing appliances.
A large section of the basement has been turned into an inviting community room.
“It was filled with garbage, dead pigeons, everything you can imagine,” said property manager Gelene Willis.
Foutch Brothers also is renovating three smaller apartment buildings at 718, 722 and 730 N. Market, which contain a total of 24 units. Those units will be ready in December.
The cost of renovating all four buildings is about $7 million, almost all of it government tax credits sold to investors: $4.2 million were federal low-income tax credits, $1 million in federal historic tax credits and $1.25 million from state historic tax credits.
Steve Foutch and his investors, including former Wichitan Tony Krsnich, supplied about $500,000 in equity and a commercial mortgage. But the real contribution was sweat equity.
Foutch said renovating the buildings, like all of his projects, was a tremendous effort. It entailed evicting homeless vagrants, cleaning up dead animals, shoring up sagging floors and generally figuring out how to satisfy both modern building codes and historic authenticity, city inspectors and federal bureaucrats.
Foutch said he has spent the $7 million and now must lease out all the units to release the tax credits.
“I’m at my most vulnerable, right now,” he said.
Foutch is also obligated to retain ownership of the project for 15 years.
