PETERSBURG, Va. -- A multi-million-dollar project to transform a shuttered school in hopes of transforming a Petersburg neighborhood is back on track.
Sparks were flying Friday as work continued inside Virginia Avenue School after a fire and financial problems derailed plans for the project, which were first announced in June 2021.
A lot has changed inside the former school since crews first began the demolition process.
“You couldn’t walk straight down through it before,” Randy McElroy with Davis Brothers Construction Company explained. “We spent two and a half weeks just getting rid of all the junk that was left behind, desks, chairs, kitchen equipment.”
Everything left behind by Petersburg Public Schools from when the facility was shuttered in 2001 ended up in dumpsters.
“Before it was so full of trash and so dark you couldn’t really tell a whole lot of what was going on in here,” McElroy said.
WATCH: After years of delay, Virginia Avenue School neighbors are excited about Petersburg revitalization
McElroy said the school may be old, but it still has good bone and is a "pretty solid building.”
The building will become about 50 new apartments for seniors, according to McElroy.
“This will either become one apartment or it will become two smaller apartments,” McElroy said.
While crews have come a long way, there is a lot left to do, including asbestos abatement. That is expected to be completed in the next two weeks.
And while the historic building is under renovation, McElroy said the past will not be forgotten.
"This was the original auditorium and then this will be some sort of meeting room for the residents,” McElroy said.
Inside the 55,000-square-foot building, there have been a few positive discoveries like the original hardwood floors.
“Some of them we were actually able to save, so we have about five or six upstairs. This one down here and it’s nice because it shows the original character of the building,” McElroy said.
WATCH: Exclusive look inside abandoned Virginia Avenue school
The outside of the former school has been transformed after trees and brush were removed.
“I knew it was really going to make the front of the building look 100% better,” McElroy said.
And as some predicted, with the renovation of the former school well underway, a change is happening in the surrounding neighborhood.
“In the last month and a half, two months, people have started renovating some of the properties,” McElroy noted. “That house right there was, got fixed up and is now for sale. The house right there just started construction a month ago.”
A realtor and the head of a company building a house next to the Virginia Avenue School said the project will positively affect home prices and hopefully spur more new construction and remodels in the area.
McElroy said the rebuild phase will begin following demolition sometime in October.
WATCH: How an abandoned school could spark a rebirth in Petersburg
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