Ray and Marsha Minervini moved to northern Michigan in 1989 expecting they would soon retire and "take it easy" after running construction companies for many years in Detroit. "But that isn't my personality," Ray admits. "I enjoy working too much."
Photo Credit: Photo: Jim Anderson
Since their move, the Minervinis have worked tirelessly to rescue from demolition the historic Northern Michigan Asylum, located in Traverse City on a 64-acre campus. Today they are five years into redevelopment of a 36-acre portion of the complex called The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. Housing nearly 1 million square feet of buildings — including the 400,000-square-foot centerpiece of the complex, a structure formerly known as Building 50 — the redevelopment is one of the largest historic preservation and mixed adaptive-reuse projects in the country.
Adding a wall across the corridor of end unit 301 created a dramatic entrance to the living room/kitchen and allowed for a spacious floor plan.
Photo Credit: Photo: Courville Imaging
The Village People
While Ray and Marsha have years of experience in construction, the scope and complexity of the redevelopment are unparalleled. To accomplish their goals and not feel overwhelmed, they divided the remodeling project into eight manageable sections and split business responsibilities between two companies. Ray dissolved his construction company and bought out his wife's company, MAM Contracting, which now handles the construction and contracting part of the job, including managing about 40 subcontractors. Ray formed The Minervini Group in 2000 specifically for the development side of the project. Both companies have their offices in The Village.
The Minervini Group, left to right: Mini Minervini, Tony Lombardi, Ray Minervini, Raymond Minervini, and Marsha Minervini photographed in the new company offices on the first floor of Building 50 at The Village.
Photo Credit: Photo: Paxton Photography
The project has become a family affair. Ray serves as managing member of The Minervini Group; Marsha is a licensed Realtor and handles sales for the company; their son Raymond is a partner of The Minervini Group; and Ray's sister, Mini Minervini, works on custom design and recruitment of key tenants and purchasers for office, retail, and residential space. Ray and Marsha's three other sons are also involved with the business: Two work in the field, and one is a project manager with MAM. "We have 40 people we employ [and about] 80 working on the project right now," Ray says.
The Right Fit
The Minervinis recently completed the first phase of the redevelopment, reviving the former Cottage 20 and the 45,000-square-foot section 1 of Building 50, which housed the "men's most disturbed ward." Now called Southview, it includes an Italian restaurant and art gallery on the garden level, offices on the first and second floors, and a total of nine residential units on the third-floor and attic levels.
Nine residential condos of varying size make up the third-floor and attic levels. The third-floor porch adds outdoor space and a scenic view to unit 302.
Photo Credit: Photo: Courville Imaging
The biggest challenge with the Southview residential space was reconfiguring 9-by-11-foot patient rooms into livable condominiums that meet today's market standards. "A house is easy to rehab; it's open space," Ray says. "An institutional building, like this old hospital, is difficult. You start off with many small rooms and solid 18-inch-thick masonry walls, so any modification requires the demolition of load-bearing walls." The solution? "Every space is different. We have to reconfigure the spaces and listen to the building," Ray says.
The result of the Minervinis' attentive approach is not only a mixed-use community but a diverse array of condos that range from 300 to 3,000 square feet in size and $65,000 to more than $600,000 in price. The original 13-foot ceiling height was preserved, as were the 8-foot-high window openings. More efficient, custom-built six-over-six-pane windows have replaced the metal 15-over-15-pane originals. "We were also able to salvage the wood floors and moldings, [and] had new cuts and patterns made to emulate the originals if they were too damaged," Ray says.
Photo Credit: Photo: Courville Imaging
While each condo boasts a different design, every space shares what the Minervinis call an "interior porch," created by the 12-foot-wide corridor that runs the length of the building on every floor (except for the attic level) and is as wide as the rooms on either side of it. The corridor was deemed to have historical significance, so the Minervinis preserved the space, which has become "like the streetscape where you can put furniture, couches, chairs," Ray says.
Creating a Market
Nestled within 320 acres of preserved parkland, with views of Lake Michigan and just steps from the city, The Village is prime real estate. Rather than create a monoculture for the rich, however, the Minervinis "strive to create a cross-section of people, generationally and socioeconomically," Ray says. "We see a market for small spaces; they're affordable for young people." The approach has worked: Everything that is built is sold, and the majority of phases 2 and 3 is reserved. "The market has really embraced the project. People see value in it," Ray says.
A Community Cause
Community support is also what helped save the asylum from demolition. Drastic cuts in state funding, accusations of civil rights violations, and improved drug therapies all contributed to the closing of the Northern Michigan Asylum in 1989 after over a century of operation. For close to a decade following the closure, the state, county, and city reviewed various proposals for the future use of the hospital buildings and grounds. A futile search for a suitable use ended in the recommendation that the asylum be demolished.
Photo Credit: Photo: Courville Imaging
Fortunately, "community support was vociferous in sending the message to the group that demolition was not an option," Ray recalls. In protest, a citizen activist committee formed in 1998, of which Ray was a member. "It was just a local grass roots group, but ended up with 5,000 members," he says. With the committee's support, Ray helped organize a team of local architects and engineers who conducted a feasibility study on the buildings' condition and potential for reuse and economic viability. Not surprisingly, they found that the structures were built to last 500 to 1,000 years, Ray says.
Finally, after two years of negotiating, "we requested an option to purchase [Sub-area 2]" (see "Finding Funding", end of article), Ray says. Meanwhile, however, the buildings were deteriorating and being vandalized. "Our mantra through the whole negotiating process was like a clock ticking: Every tick is another brick," Ray says.
Phase I: Southview Floor Plans
In 2001, The Minervini Group's proposal to create a mixed-use residential and commercial community that preserved the historic features of the site was accepted. "In 2002 the property and buildings were deeded to us for $1," Ray says.
Roofing Race
Out of necessity, the first improvement made to the property was to reshingle Building 50. "The roof should have been replaced 30 years ago," Ray says, but it wasn't because the state knew the hospital would close. "Water damage is more insidious than fire. The water caused rotted floor joists and deteriorated brick and sections of the roof. It leaked through four levels."
Even though the damage from the leaky roof was limited to a small section of the building, the Minervinis had the entire building reroofed. "We could have just done the main [segment of the] building, but reshingling the entire building was a symbol of accomplishment and our commitment to the community," Ray notes.
Photo Credit: Photo: Courville Imaging
The roof was completed 12 months ahead of schedule, thanks to two local roofing companies that competed against each other. They started work on opposite ends of the building, roofing about 710 squares each, and the company that reached the middle first won the contract to roof the chapel section's 80 squares. Drawing on a company line of credit secured with personal assets, it cost the Minervinis more than $1 million to reroof, but "we saved the whole building," Ray says proudly.
Money Matters
"Architects like to say, ‘Form follows function.' That's not true," Ray says. "Form follows funding. When you reduce a project like this down to the lowest common denominator, it needs to be economically viable in order for it to happen. If you can figure out a way to fund it, you're set. You have to create a product people are willing to pay for." The Minervinis' cash investment and company efforts have brought nearly $20 million in rehabilitation investments to the project (see "Finding Funding", end of article), and the profit from phase 1 will be used to fund the next phase.
Photo Credit: Photo: Paxton Photography
The Long Haul
Although the first phase is complete, the Minervinis are far from finishing the project. Ray estimates it could take nearly 12 years and $300 million to finish. But that doesn't deter them.
"My dad used to say, ‘After all is said and done, more is said than done,'" Ray recalls. "The most refreshing part of the project for me was to actually get people on the roof working on it," (above). At left, the Minervinis and their field crew and office staff pause for a break on one of Building 50's porches. The team has worked significant overtime to ensure the project stays on schedule.
Photo Credit: Photo: The Minervini Group
"We're part of the problem if we don't do anything," Marsha says. "We have an obligation," Ray echoes, adding, "It's a humbling experience to work with old buildings; we are their temporary custodians. Here we have an opportunity to do well by doing good. It isn't just about the bottom line; it's about the end of the line."
—Emily Wittbrodt is REMODELING's former assistant editor.
Sub-area 2 encompasses Building 50 and 12 other buildings. The Minervini Group has an option on the adjoining 25-acre Sub-area 3.
Constructing a Kirkbride
Completed in 1885 after only two years of construction, 40-foot-wide, ¼-mile-long Building 50 was the product of a short-lived — if popular at the time — approach to mental health care advocated by psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride. Kirkbride believed that beauty was therapy, and that the building form of an institution was itself curative. His treatise on hospital design greatly influenced the design of hospitals for the mentally ill. Constructed during the late 1800s, they were known as "Kirkbride-plan hospitals" (see "Seeking Asylum?" below). The Northern Michigan Asylum, renamed the Traverse City Regional Psychiatric Hospital because of the growing association of "asylum" with cruel treatments like lobotomies and electro-shock therapy, was no exception.
Removing the wall that divided two rooms created a spacious bedroom for unit 301 and maintaining both entrances added interesting architectural detail.
Photo Credit: Photo: Courville Imaging
"Kirkbrides are different from other asylums [in that] they're long and linear. That's the prominent architectural masterpiece of the whole development," Ray Minervini explains. Building 50's echelon, or "stepped," shape separated female patients in the north wing from male patients in the south wing and created light and ventilation for each building segment, which was considered therapeutic for patients. Its elaborate Victorian-Italianate architecture and picturesque grounds also reflected the philosophy that aesthetic beauty heals.
Three patient rooms on each side of the corridor made up unit 301; reconfiguring interior walls, evident by the flooring, enabled the island kitchen.
Photo Credit: Photo: Courville Imaging
At 50 feet up to the eaves, constructed of brick and 600-pound limestone slabs without any power equipment, it's no wonder Minervini marvels at Building 50's construction. "It's hard for me to comprehend. We have all the high-tech equipment and the manpower, and it takes us a year to fix up only one segment of the building!" Both interior and exterior walls of Building 50 are five bricks wide and laid side by side; it's estimated that more than 15 million bricks were used in its construction.
Finding Funding
Restoring any historical building requires a larger investment of time and money than remodeling a non-historical structure. "To level the playing field," Ray Minervini says, "you need to create as many entitlements as possible."
The Minervinis have established several entitlements for their project, making their personal investment less of a burden and the property more attractive to prospective buyers and tenants.
The series of archways in unit 305 mark what were once the entrances to four patient rooms. They now provide structural support and serve as a divider between the kitchen (above) and dining room and the living room. The corridor ran the length of the kitchen and dining area, which are made cozy thanks to the angled ceiling.
Photo Credit: Photo: Paxton Photography
The Village received two separate $1 million Brownfield Redevelopment grants from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to remove lead paint and asbestos from the site.
Seventy-five percent of The Village is located within a Michigan Renaissance Zone — the only one in the region. Village residents and businesses pay virtually no state or local taxes.
Rehabilitation tax credits offered through the National Park Service and State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) allow the Minervinis as owners and other for-profit entities in The Village to receive a 20% federal tax credit and a 5% Michigan tax credit because the building is a certified historic structure and is being restored according to guidelines set by the SHPO.
Because entitlements vary by state, Ray Minervini recommends meeting with a technical consultant to understand what entitlements may be available for your project. The D.C.-based Environmental Law Institute maintains a database of environmental consultants at www.brownfieldscenter.org/big/searchdatabase.cfm
Minervini also suggests that restorers:
- Find another contractor who has done a similar preservation project and understands how to restore without jeopardizing qualification for tax credits.
- Educate your contractors and subcontractors. "Each one should be aware of the preservation guidelines specific to their trade."
- Work with an architect who is familiar with the historic tax credit restoration guidelines. The Minervinis' in-house architect ensures construction adheres to the guidelines.
Seeking Asylum?
At least a dozen Kirkbride asylums across the country have already been destroyed. But plenty of opportunities exist to save those that are abandoned or slated for destruction.
"It's really a tragedy that so many of these spectacularly beautiful buildings are going to be demolished," Ray Minervini says. "The building stock and infrastructure are already here."
Minervini says he has the formula for restoring a Kirkbride asylum:
- Create a mixed-use environment. "That's what all the Kirkbrides were built on," he says.
- Then, put people back into the building.
- "That's what creates life in the building," he says.
Resources
Web sites
Books
- How Buildings Learn: What happens after they're built, by Stewart Brand.
- "An absolute must-read for anyone who is restoring a building," Ray Minervini says.
- The Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation, by the National Park Service.