History and comment
The building used for this housing development was originally constructed around 1923. For most of its life it served as the High School, and more recently as an Elementary School. In the late 70's, Nelson Capital Development, Inc. began meeting with an contingent of elderly activists who wished to have eldery housing in Sinclairville, and in that building. Nelson Capital was asked to make their wish happen, and it was successful in doing so. This was the first housing project for Nelson Capital, and for the elderly activists it was the beginning of what was to become known as the Sinclairville 76r's for Better Living, Inc. That organization continues to work in the community serving the elderly population.
The 76r's was an important partner with Nelson Capital in the effort to develop the first phase of the Charlotte Villa Complex. A third partner was the Chautauqua Housing Rehabilitation and Improvement Corporation which was in its infancy as an entity pursuing housing improvement and community activism.
The project drew some surprising advocacy because it involved a the reuse of a former school building. The school was new enough that several people in various age grouping were former students, and some of them became tenants, and in some cases a person selected an apartment location where they once sat in a classroom. The community had also formed a Historical Society which enjoyed acquiring memories and some old artifacts from the school.
The human story of how things developed is more interesting, than the physical building and its financing. As is always the need, a market for the building's use must exist, or specifically for this product it meant a suitable number of qualified tenants would want to live there. From the advocacy perspective, several of the members of the 76 r's would become tenants.
Our primary goal is to create and/or market products and investments that meets three Philosophical Tests of the Management. A) Provides beneficial Returns flowing to the investors, B) Provides a beneficial asset to the community, and C) Provides a beneficial asset to those customers and users the project serves.__
