The Ben Hur building celebrated a grand opening with several people from the community in attendance.
The property has been vacant for nearly two decades but will now be home for many in Crawfordsville, with 49 one- and two-bedroom apartments in the five-floor building. The building was restored to preserve most of the historic aesthetic it held when it was first built. The lobby appears exactly as it did in 1940, down to the lunch counter, mailbox and staircase.
Some of the smaller details in the building were not able to be preserved due to a theft that occurred over a year ago. Several door handles, elevator buttons, railings and mail slots were taken and never relocated. These missing items have been replicated as authentically as possible.
John Anderson, the president of AP Development, took on the role of restoring the historical building, a project he said has taken at least a decade to complete.
“This is a labor of love for us. This is what we do, but this one is special. It’s close to home,” Anderson said. “It’s the first building I really fell in love with when I started becoming a developer.”
Though there were hiccups and many delays in completing the project, including the Covid pandemic, Anderson said success was largely in part due to Mayor Todd Barton and the city’s financial support.
“These kind of projects don’t happen without this kind of mayor and this kind of leadership. The city has been incredible,” Anderson said. “Thank you for not tearing down the building. County commissioners, thank you for giving me the building. The city’s financial support has been incredible and the moral support.”
He also thanked other people and entities including Montgomery County Commissioners, Zahn’s Flooring, C&F Fabricating, Sherwin Williams of Crawfordsville and Home Depot.
Barton described the grand opening of the building with one word, “monumental.”
“This speaks to who we are as Crawfordsville and Montgomery County. And you should give yourselves a round of applause for that,” Barton said. “Because for a building like this to sit here, I don’t know that long, and still be here to be rehabbed is incredible.”
While the building is open and apartments ready to be leased, Anderson said that rehabbing a historic building is never complete.
“We’re not done. I mean, we have things that are on back order that we won’t get for 40 weeks. We have things that we know we need to still touch up and fix,” Anderson said. “We know that, all right? But it’s magnificent. We’ll be working on this building for the rest of my life because that’s how old buildings work.”
Leasing is now available for the apartments, which range from $1,035-1,485 for one and two bedrooms.
For more information about the building or leasing an apartment visit the website www.liveatbenhur.com or email info@liveatbenhur.com.
