MANSFIELD — Real estate developer Alex Dorsey said Tuesday night he already feels at home in Mansfield — a community in which he plans to build lots of new homes for people.
“I am really excited to be here. I can’t tell you how much this project means to the community … everybody wants it. It’s inspiring to us to do this because everybody wants it. I love the building stock. I love the people,” Dorsey told Richland Source.
“This is what we do and we do it well. We look for these type of investments and this one fell kind of into our lap.
“This will just be a home base for us. It’s 52 minutes from my house, which seems like it’s nothing. I feel like I’m not an out-of-towner.”
Dorsey, the founder and CEO of Windsor Companies based in Delaware County, was referring to Downtown Forward, an estimated $25 million redevelopment project that will turn about 180,000 square feet into 95 apartments in downtown Mansfield.
The project will use 14 buildings around the Brickyard downtown that Mansfield residents John and Mimi Fernyak are donating through Engwiller Properties to the Richland County Foundation. It’s one of the single largest and most public gifts in the history of the 81-year-old philanthropic organization.
Richland County Foundation will partner on the project with Windsor Companies, a vertically integrated real estate development firm that Dorsey launched in Powell, Ohio, in 1998.
The company specializes in adaptive reuse and revitalization projects, transforming historic or underutilized buildings into modern residential apartments, mixed-use, and commercial spaces.
City Council approves tax abatements for project
City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved legislation providing a 75-percent tax abatement for 12 years on those improvements. The measure covers a community reinvestment area for a construction project Windsor hopes to complete in 2028.
That move shows community support of a redevelopment plan and strengthens the case for approval of historic preservation tax credits.
These and other state and federal tax credits will aid in redevelopment of the donated properties, according to officials, who have said they may know by June if the credits are approved.
Another of those tax credits being sought will be via the transformational mixed-use development program for “costs incurred during the construction of a project that will be a catalyst for future development in its area.”
Dorsey was joined at Tuesday’s meeting by Erik Alfieri, a partner focused on acquisitions and development at Windsor Companies. Alfieri provided local lawmakers with a presentation of what the company has planned for the project.
(Below is a PDF of the presentation made by Windsor Companies to Mansfield City Council on Tuesday evening.)
“We’re envisioning around 95 apartments that will be a mix between studio apartments or efficiencies, one-bedroom and two-bedrooms,” Alfieri said.
‘We want to say thank you to the Fernyak family’
He said the Fernyak family had preserved, maintained and provided buildings in excellent shape, with nearly all of the construction project focused on the interiors.
“We want to say thank you to the Fernyak family for being such incredible stewards of downtown Mansfield for so many years,” Alfieri said.
“We’re also honored to have the Richland County Foundation as our partner in what we think could be a very transformative project for downtown and for Mansfield and Richland County, more broadly,” Alfieri said.
He pointed to two recent Windsor Companies’ successful projects in Dayton that also included historic preservation tax credits — the Deneau Tower and the Fire Blocks District.
He said the company converted the 22-story tower from office space to about 150 apartments and 40,000 square-feet of commercial space. He said the Fire Blocks District took a portfolio of historic buildings and created about 130 apartments in approximately 300,000 square-feet of space.
“I think (the Mansfield project), to be honest, this is right down the center of the fairway for us. It’s neither a small project nor a big project. I think it’s very much within our wheelhouse,” Alfieri said.
He said the new apartments would increase foot traffic at all hours in the downtown, which will support local businesses.
“The folks that are already there will benefit (and) potential entrepreneurs who’ve been thinking about opening a storefront will see that vibrancy and hopefully be attracted to downtown.
“We’ve seen it in other communities in which we have spent time investing. It really creates this positive cycle of momentum and we’re thrilled to be in a place that has such incredible building stock downtown,” Alfieri said.
“It’s not something that is easily replicable,” he said.
The initial project will likely generate market-rate housing. But Dorsey said it won’t stop there as RCF and Windsor Companies continue to partner with additional properties being donated by the Fernyak family.
“Once we get into a market, we will have all shapes and sizes based on average median income,” he said. “We’ll look at AMI and see what the greatest need is.
“When you talk about downtown and you talk about this walkable environment, you very much want to see a lot of market rate. But we do plan on growing in the market. We do plan on doing some different, affordable housing.
“We plan on being kind of across-the-spectrum with respect to average-median income,” Dorsey said.
‘It really is going to transform downtown’
Allie Watson, the Richland County Foundation president and CEO, also praised the Fernyak family.
“We are extremely appreciative of the Fernyak family and this amazing gift,” she told council members.
“It really is going to transform downtown. The Downtown Forward initiative is there to revitalize the historic buildings in downtown by transforming underutilized buildings into vibrant new housing and retail opportunities,” she said.
“Through this gift, the foundation will be entrusted to guide the long-term stewardship of these properties for the benefit of the community long-term, which will secure local control and pave the way for future redevelopment,” Watson said.
She noted the foundation is fortunate Windsor officials came to Mansfield.
“They saw the investment that we were making in ourselves with the Main Street project, and they said, ‘This is amazing. You have this wonderful historic, brick-building stock downtown.’
“So they could see the benefits that we could also see in downtown,” Watson said.
“(Windsor) is a vertically integrated company, which means that they have a lot of processes internally. They are also, well-versed in historic tax credits and TMUD tax credits, applications and projects,” Watson said.
‘We are building the plane as we fly it’
Watson told Richland Source some of the details are still being worked out, though state tax credit applications required quick movement by council. The Richland County Foundation will maintain ownership of the properties, which Windsor will develop and manage.
“We’re still figuring it out quite honestly. I wish that we had a fully structured product by the time we got to this point tonight. But we are building the plane as we’re flying it, so we don’t have that totally buttoned down right now.
“There’s only six of us (at the Richland County Foundation). None of us have the experience or expertise to do construction or property management. That’s why Windsor’s such a fabulous partner in this project.
“They move fairly quickly. They have said multiple times they predict about 18 months of (construction) from start-to-finish as far as the restoration of the buildings,” Watson said.
Parking for new downtown residents is “another piece that we’re still working through. It’s definitely on the radar, obviously, but we’re working on it.”
Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry called it a “transformational project.”
“I’ve been on a couple calls with Allie recently where we talked to peers across the state and everyone is just totally blown away. First of all by the generosity of John and Mimi, but then the follow-up of what the foundation is planning to do with it,” the mayor said.
“We talk about site control — site control is the end game for economic development, so that is what they’re giving us. I think we’ve all watched downtown since COVID (just) kind of hover.
“There’s definitely good things going on, but I think what we have needed to get it over that hump is really people living here all the time. So this is going to give us a chance, I think, to more than double where we’re at now.
“I just want to say thanks to everyone involved,” Perry said.
‘It’s a perfect match for downtown’
John and Mimi Fernyak attended the meeting Tuesday.
“I’d like to thank the mayor and City Council for saving the parking lot at Fourth and Main (streets) because without that, this project wouldn’t go forward,” John Fernyak said.
“My wife has wanted me to put apartments in for 20 years and I could never make them cash flow. But Windsor has come along and they have all kinds of cost savings that I couldn’t put together,” the 92-year-old businessman said.
“It’s a perfect match for the downtown because in Wooster, Ohio, if you go to the downtown, it’s vibrant. It really, really works. And it works because Stan Gault, who was the chairman of Goodyear, had a lot of money.
“He put a lot of apartments in downtown Wooster, so a lot of people are living in downtown and it makes a big difference because it helps the the restaurants and it helps the merchants.
“It keeps a lot of life going on downtown.”