Apartment Choice

Regions › Southwest Virginia April 27, 2017  |  Print this page by Tim Thornton Marion is seeing an apartment boom. Photo courtesy The Town of Marion For nearly a century, Marion College sat on Marion’s Main Street. It closed in 1967. For much of the 20th century, R.T. Greer and Co. was a national leader in crude botanicals — roots and herbs collected and sold to pharmaceutical companies — and Marion was the center of Greer’s operations. But the business shrank as drug companies turned to other ingredients. Greer was gone by 1968. Textile companies in Marion also provided steady employment for decades, but by the early 1990s many of those jobs had disappeared. Town Manager Bill Rush says Marion “took some blows,” but it didn’t fall. One of the town’s old sewing factories is about to be converted into an apartment building. The old herb warehouse is, too. Two other downtown buildings have been or are about to be transformed into apartments. Ken Heath, executive director of Mar...

A decade after the crash, Shannon Valley housing estate , on the outskirts of Ballaghaderreen, in Co Roscommon, remains unfinished and partly in ruins. Although the number of “ unfinished housing developments ” has fallen sharply since 2010, Shannon Valley is one of hundreds that still dot the country. The Guls: ‘Every day I put rats in the bin’ Fatima Gul says her little brother, Yousaf, doesn’t like the rats. He jumps up on the sofa or the table in the living room when they come into the house. Their parents don’t allow Fatimar, who is 10, or her nine-year-old sister, Maryam, or Yousaf and his twin, Zohra, who are five, to play near the houses on the other side of their green. It’s too close to the rats and the rubble. Shannon Valley “ ghost estate ” outside Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon. Photograph: Simon Carswell" height="349" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3181475!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg" width="620...

LEWISTON — The city is seeking a large federal grant that would address housing and other issues in the poorest areas of downtown Lewiston , and neighborhood advocates say the funds could go a long way toward implementing goals they've had for years.  If successful in its bid, Lewiston could receive $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and what's known as a  Choice Neighborhood Planning and Action Grant. The city council approved the application last week, and will commit $237,500 in local Community Development Block Grant funds during implementation if the grant is successful.  The city hopes the funding can lead to long-term changes in the downtown neighborhood , where nearly half of residents live below the federal poverty level . According to 2015 census figures, the median family incomes in downtown census tracts 201 and 203, are $12,417 and $16,047, respectively.  The main purpose of the funds is to plan and execute major housing...

Shares 355 By Amy Wenk and Maria Saporta As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 4, 2017 An Atlanta developer is planning an innovative co-working space along one of Atlanta’s most historic streets — a project that’s already lured high- profile investors including top Home Depot executives . Historic preservation developer Gene Kansas in front of the 135 Auburn Ave. building, which he and a group of investors have acquired to turn into a “Constellations” project on the second floor (Photo by Maria Saporta) Gene Kansas Commercial Real Estate plans to open Constellations, a $2 million project that will offer “culturally-inspired” workspace with the hope of bringing together great minds who care about making a difference in the city. It’s coming to the second floor of the circa-1910 former Southern School Book Depository at 135 Auburn Ave., a building that was designed by famed Atlanta architect Neel Reid . Constellations will replace the Southern Education Foundati...

When American doctor Stephen Yoon thinks of North Korea, he does not think of ballistic missile tests or the threat of nuclear war. He remembers instead a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, who suffered from spastic quadriplegia that made her unable to stand or sit. Five years ago, she went to Yoon's developmental-disability program at Pyongyang Medical University Hospital , where she received treatments from Yoon and his team of local doctors. After almost a year of exercise therapy and some surgeries, she walked out of the hospital on her own. The event was heralded in North Korean state media as a national victory, but it received no notice in the U.S., where few people even know about the roughly 200 Americans like Yoon who work and live under the rule of Kim Jong Un. Carefully monitored by the regime, they have come and gone for years, doing educational, medical or infrastructural work, and sometimes raising families in a nation that has been officially at war with the ...