JUSTIN SORENSEN / WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

Neighbors of Watertown Executive Director Gary C. Beasley gives a tour Nov. 17 of one of the multilevel apartments in the newly renovated Franklin Building in downtown Watertown. The building will feature 16 apartments and up to 12 commercial spaces.

FRANKLIN BUILDING: Neighbors of Watertown accepting applications from potential residents

Nine apartments have been filled at the renovated Franklin Building, but the agency behind the work will accept applications for more residents.

Some of the commercial spaces are still available, too.

Neighbors of Watertown Inc. took charge of renovating the three-story building, which is turning into 16 apartments and seven to 12 commercial spaces, some with street-side storefronts.

"We're on track to get our temporary certificates of occupancy at the end of November," said Gary C. Beasley, executive director of Neighbors. "That means we can start renting it up."

After the work is complete and alarms and mechanical systems are tested, Neighbors will be able to get the permanent certificates, around the end of the year. That will mean people and businesses can move in.

Neighbors must complete work by the end of the year to satisfy some governmental funding sources.

People interested in living in the remaining apartments must submit an application to Neighbors. Qualifying applicants will be put into a lottery. Neighbors held the first lottery Nov. 15, with the second one scheduled for mid-December. First, a few local nonprofits will have a chance at some of the units.

The North Country Arts Council has committed to taking the two left storefronts on the Public Square side. That is one of several groups that have said they'll move into the commercial area.

On the first floor, the arcade has reopened, with new porcelain tile and lighting, allowing clear passage from Public Square to Franklin Street. The arcade had been closed off on Franklin Street in 1918, when the YWCA's attorney told that organization's board that the arcade would become a public sidewalk in 1920.

As crews worked, they found the original handwritten minutes from the YWCA's meeting that led to that decision.

"We opened it so we could have the same character right straight through," Mr. Beasley said.

Crews found the appropriate entrance under the offices that had been there.

Crews from Con Tech Building Systems, Gouverneur, restored and used historic pieces in the building, including floor lights, windows that had been covered and the tin ceilings in the arcade.

"The tin ceiling was attached right on the floor joists," Mr. Beasley said. "So they took everything down, put in the fire-resistant drywall and sprinkler system and put the tin back up."

There wasn't enough tin to cover the ceiling in all of the commercial spaces, so the storefronts have at least some section near the display windows that show the tin ceiling.

The renovations extend to 16 apartments on the second and third floors.

The apartments on the Public Square side are one-bedroom units. Some are wheelchair accessible and others are designed for those with hearing impairment in mind. Those units have a light in the apartment that signals the doorbell, a telephone or the security buzzer ringing with different blinking patterns.

Each apartment, as required by some funding sources, was built so that a person in a wheelchair could visit — the doors are 3 feet wide and the bathroom has a clear 5-foot radius around the toilet.

All of the apartments have engineered hardwood floors, connections for Internet, cable and phone, and lots of closet space.

"We made them very livable," Mr. Beasley said.

The contractors reused the historic window frames facing Public Square because of requirements from the federal historic tax credit program. Each opening was measured, and the glass provider cut two panes for each opening and fused them together, Mr. Beasley said.

"Every pane was labeled and tracked," he said. "Every opening is a little different."

For the side windows, they also had to add additional sash weights to the historic ones because the windows' weight increased.

"We have all of these regulations to meet because of the funding sources, which is a necessary part of the process," Mr. Beasley said. "For 16 apartments, no one could do it with their own money. When we get involved, it's because the community wants to save the building."

The building now has a hybrid heating and cooling system. Glycol runs through loops for the commercial and residential spaces. Each unit has a pump to extract heat from the loop in the winter and cool the air in the summer.

Neighbors pays half the cost, while tenants cover the other half.