The project is maybe not the worst idea, the $1400 rent a month though…
Oh and this was not the first plan:
“We were thinking of turning it into a WeWork space, a concert hall, a beer garden. We had no shortage of ideas on what to do with the space,”
I wanted to disagree with you at first, because I love the idea of repurposing old structures instead of building yet another soulless, “modern” apartment building, but yeah, they’re clearly doing this with the intent of turning a profit when it could have been another example of non-market housing, where the cost of rent simply covers the cost of building maintenance and actually helps to stabilize rent costs in an area.
TL;DR: Once again, a cool thing is made less cool by the profit motive.