Bob
Webb shut off the flashlight in the
subterranean cool.
“This is the darkest spot I
know of in Joplin,” Webb mused
about the pitch blackness around him
Wednesday afternoon deep in the
bowels of the old Frisco Building in
downtown Joplin.
The assistant job superintendent
for Larry Snyder & Co., chief
contractor on a $9 million-plus
project converting the long-vacant
building into apartments for the
elderly, was talking about a
basement room where workers found
old clothing piled two-thirds the
way to the ceiling when they started
clearing the building for remodeling
this summer.
Another room nearby was known to
have been a haunt of local youth,
who’d sneak into the basement to
jam together out of earshot of any
passersby outside. Workers even
found evidence of squatters in the
labyrinthine basement of the Frisco,
which has stood vacant the past 15
years.
City leaders are hoping that the
interior gloom and furtive uses of
the Frisco’s recent past will soon
yield to a vibrant new occupancy,
reflective of the 89-year-old
building’s glory days in
architectural detail, but also
contributing to a repopulation of
Main Street that could in turn prove
a catalyst for a more extensive
commercial revival of downtown
Joplin.
Demolition began inside the
building about two weeks ago and is
running ahead of schedule. The walls
have been knocked down on all seven
upper floors and a wrecking crew out
of Texas was already well into work
on the first floor Wednesday.
The actual remodeling and
refurbishing of the Frisco is likely
to begin in October and could take
about a year to complete.
“We’re still three weeks away
before we get into the metal studs
and framing,” said Greg Keller,
project manager for Larry Snyder
& Co.
The developer, Carlson, Gardner
Inc. of Springfield, is planning 56
apartments on the seven upper floors
of the Frisco. There will be a 50-50
mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom
units, according to Denise Ogan, the
company’s development manager.
“We’ve had numerous calls of
interest with the publicity about
the project,” Ogan said.
The apartments would be for
seniors 55 years of age and older
who can meet income eligibility
requirements. The basic requirement
is that they not have income greater
than 60 percent of the area’s
median income.
John Joines, chief executive
officer of the Economic Security
Corp. in Joplin, said the median
income at this time in Jasper County
is $18,241. That breaks down by
gender to $23,250 for males and
$13,738 for females, Joines said.
He said anyone on Social Security
income and nothing more should
qualify.
“In the next three months, we’ll
be putting out a lot of information
on the Frisco and going to different
locations to make sure everyone
knows these apartments are available
and what the eligibility
requirements will be,” Joines
said.
As the contract administrator for
the Jasper County Public Housing
Agency, which serves Barton, Newton
and McDonald counties as well as the
non-Joplin portions of Jasper
County, ESC keeps a waiting list for
public housing.
Joines said there are 140 seniors
on that list at this time. He said
there are another 52 seniors on a
Joplin waiting list for subsidized
housing.
A satellite office of the
Economic Security Corp. will be
located on the first floor of the
Frisco Building, along with the
developer’s leasing office, the
building manager’s apartment, a
kitchen and banquet area, a library
reading area and a fitness room.
The developer has taken pains to
preserve the original floor tiles of
the building, its marble wainscoting
on all floors, the decorative
cornices and columns of the first
floor and other architectural
highlights. The Frisco’s original
staircase also will be preserved and
refurbished.
“Probably the greatest feature
will be that a majority of the space
on the first floor will just be
opened up and renovated to the way
it used to be when the Frisco was a
train station,” Ogan said.
She said the company hopes to
receive the help of historical
societies and others in furnishing
the open lobby space with
memorabilia from that station era.
The building’s elevators will
be replaced with new ones. But they’ll
be installed in the old shafts.
Harold Coffman, job
superintendent for Larry Snyder
& Co., said it took about a
month and a half, starting in
mid-June, to clear the building of
asbestos, pigeons and pigeon
droppings. Workers reportedly found
one bathroom with literally hundreds
of pigeon carcasses.
“It was like they’d all gone
in there and fought and died,”
Webb said.
Rubble from the demolition phase
still has to be removed from all
floors but the second.
Carlson, Gardner, Inc. has been
involved in similar conversions of
historical buildings to public
housing for seniors in St. Joseph
and Osceola.
The Joplin project is being
financed with about $5.9 million in
state and federal low-income housing
tax credits, another $2.7 million in
state and federal historical tax
credits, a low-interest state loan
of $450,000 and $150,000 of
Community Development Block Grant
money pledged by the city of Joplin.
