Old Duluth Central High School Now a 122 Unit Apartment Building

DULUTH, Minn. — Have you ever gone into an older school building, just about anywhere, and had that feeling of “I’ve been here before and I’ve got to get going, or I’ll be late for class?

You may get that feeling of Déjà vu when you enter the Zenith DCHS building and that’s because it was the old Central High School. Now the building is a 122-unit apartment building.

Push open one of the solid wood doors you’ll see clear signs that this isn’t a high school anymore.

Two years of reconstruction, remodeling, and improvement and nearly 35 million dollars have turned the old high school into a very livable and comfortable rental property known as Zenith DCHS.

If you, your parents or grandparents were students here at one time, you’re going to find a lot of amenities in here now, such as this pool table that just weren’t here before. In fact, in the auditorium where they can’t really make any significant changes because of the history, they’re planning on putting in pickleball courts.

The developer of the property says there are more than 100 different floor plans because of the differences in the building. “ We did run into pretty substantial cost overruns during the project, said Mark Laverty, the Chief Development Officer and Developer for Saturday Properties. “As you go and put back all the layers of this funding and there were some parts where there were four different walls behind.”

The funding to pay for the reconstruction also took a lot of effort and participation from local state and federal governments.

“The challenges of trying to build housing in Duluth compared to Minneapolis, St. Paul is it is more expensive and the rents are less,” said Laverty. “So for rent to make them a viable option, that is where the city of Duluth has been able to step in and provide different financing sources. Without these, this project would not happen.”

Apartments in the building range from studio to three-bedroom apartments and rent runs the gamut from 999 dollars for a studio to 54 hundred dollars for the penthouse.

And 13 of the apartments are designated as affordable.

Residents began moving into the building  in January. 50% of the apartments are  leased and  more than 25% of the apartments are already occupied.