The Charles F. Kettering Building, at 150 E. South College St., built in 1950, was home to classrooms, administration and faculty offices, as well as scientific research laboratories. Now, it houses 91.3 WYSO. Also under contract, Windsor plans to turn this building into 55-and-older residential apartments. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Windsor unveils additional plans for more apartments
- Published: March 19, 2025
Representatives from Columbus-based real estate developer Windsor Companies returned to Yellow Springs on Tuesday, March 4, to unveil additional plans to one day build market rate apartments on the campus of Antioch College.
What began last year as a proposal for 128 apartment units has now grown to 171 total units.
As the News previously reported, Windsor purchased the 2.16-acre lot where the college’s vacant former student union sits from Antioch for $500,000 in June of last year.
There, Windsor aims to build two 64-unit apartment buildings — composed of 32 two-bedroom units and 96 one-bedroom units, 128 in total — ranging from 650 to 1,100 square feet. The twin structures will be four stories high, and will be tentatively dubbed “Unity Village.”
When the News first reported on Windsor’s plans for the student union site, the developer’s head designer, Jason Dorsey, said the company was also interested in purchasing two other college-owned properties: the adjacent Sontag-Fels and Charles F. Kettering buildings.
While those properties are still listed as “under contract” and presently belong to Antioch, Windsor’s future plans for them came into sharper focus at a work session with Village staffers and Planning Commission members last week.
For the Kettering building: Windsor plans to rehab it to accommodate 43 one- and two-bedroom units.
According to Erik Alfieri, an acquisitions and development partner with Windsor, the goal for the Kettering building is to “preserve the existing footprint and the exterior,” and simultaneously modernize it with upgraded, energy-efficient HVAC, electrical and plumbing systems.
“This would be an adaptive reuse of the building that maintains its historical charm,” Alfieri told Planning Commission members and Village staff.
Plans for the Kettering building indicate that the 32,000-square-foot structure would remain three stories tall, and would have a central corridor on each floor. Around that apartment building, there will be 67 parking spaces, or a total of more than 1.5 spaces per unit. Square footage of the units would range from over 300 to 1,100.
In a phone interview following last week’s work session, Dorsey reaffirmed his initial vision for the Kettering building: He intends for it to be predominantly senior apartments.
“It’s got a large elevator, wide doorways and wide hallways,” he said. “It’s perfect for senior, or 55-and-older housing.”
The Sontag-Fels building, like the Kettering building, remains “under contract” — at least until Windsor is able to successfully petition the Village to rezone the properties from “educational” to planned unit developments, thus allowing for greater residential density in the proposed apartment buildings.
Built in 1946, the Sontag-Fels building previously housed laboratories and administrative and faculty offices, then later, a business incubator, cafe, school dances and a student-run radical literature library. Presently, this building is under contract with Windsor. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
However, unlike the Kettering building, Sontag Fels is “not viable for adaptive reuse,” Dorsey said, adding that if Windsor were to create apartments in that location, the existing building would have to be razed.
For the time being, Dorsey said Windsor is not pursuing development plans for the Sontag Fels location, though the company is in the process of exploring opportunities through the Ohio Demolition Land Grant program on Antioch College’s behalf to finance the building’s demolition for future development opportunities in its place.
“The roof is bad, conditions on the lower level aren’t great and all the existing rooms are too tiny. [Sontag Fels] is just in such a state of disrepair, that it wouldn’t make sense for us to adapt or repurpose it in any way,” Dorsey said.
Since 2021, early childhood education center Open Air Village has occupied some space in and around Sontag. Built in 1946, the building previously housed laboratories and administrative and faculty offices, then later, a business incubator, cafe, school dances and a student-run radical literature library.
If Windsor does move forward with demolishing Sontag Fels, and building additional apartment residences in its place, Dorsey said he and the Windsor team would be “committed” to keeping Open Air Village on site.
All told under the current proposals, Windsor aims to demolish the former Antioch College Student Union to make space for the two-building, 128-unit “Unity Village” complex; renovate the Kettering building to install 43 primarily one-bedroom units — most of which would be leased to seniors; and, finally, explore funding opportunities to demolish the Sontag Fels building.
According to plans presented at the work session, Windsor aims to begin construction in September of this year, pending approval to rezone the parcels from both Village Planning Commission and Village Council.
Leasing for the newly-constructed units could start in spring of 2027.
At a public work session on Wednesday, Sept. 25, Columbus-based Windsor Companies provided some Planning Commission members with an early concept plan of a proposed 128-unit apartment complex the development company seeks to build where the Antioch College Student Union presently sits. Upon the impending demolition of the union, Windsor plans to erect two buildings populated with 32 two-bedroom and 96 one-bedroom units. (Rendering by Windsor Companies)
More on Windsor’s vision
As Alfieri, Dorsey and his brother, Alex Dorsey — Windsor’s principal, founder and CEO — indicated at last week’s work session, the development company’s vision for their newly and soon-to-be acquired properties is ambitious.
“What we want to do is build an ecosystem,” Alex Dorsey said.
Upon completion and full occupancy of the planned apartments, the three developers said they imagine this added rental housing will benefit not just Yellow Springs as a whole, but specifically that central pocket of the village.
“It will all be close to the college, right across the street from the Wellness Center and less than a block away from the future Senior Center,” Jason Dorsey said. “I see all of these entities working together, benefitting and feeding into one another.”
Specifically, the college-owned Wellness Center, he added, is the “key” to Windsor’s success in these development plans.
“In our other developments, we like to build shared community spaces — offices, rooms with fireplaces, a shared kitchen or bar — but the Wellness Center across the street? We want that to be our future residents’ gathering space,” Jason Dorsey said. “We often put gyms in our buildings, but why would we do that when there’s one right across the street?”
He continued: “These community spaces typically cost us upwards of $500,000. By working closely with the Wellness Center and the Senior Center, we can now save that money and spend it on creating additional units, nicer interior and exterior amenities, landscaping and gardening spaces.”
With that goal of “feeding into” the Wellness Center, Jason Dorsey said Windsor would likely offer its residents free memberships and discounts to the gym — “But that’s still something we’re still working on,” he said.
With plans to demolish the site, Columbus-based Windsor Companies purchased the Antioch College Student Union for $500,000 last year. The developer plans to erect efficiency and one- and two-bedroom apartments in its place. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
This plan, as the Windsor trio said at the work session, is in keeping with the company’s ethos of building not just residential living spaces, but whole communities — or economic “ecosystems.”
Windsor owns and manages over 1,000 residential units and more than 500,000 square feet of commercial space throughout Ohio — having a significant footprint in neighboring Dayton, Springfield and Beavercreek.
As the Dayton Daily News reported in late 2023, the Fire Blocks District on 3rd Street in Dayton was previously dotted with empty buildings and storefronts until Windsor invested $49 million into that corridor, leading to the creation of new apartments and small businesses that directly benefit from Windsor’s residents.
“It’s all about partnering with what’s already around our developments and creating new opportunities,” Alex Dorsey said at the work session. “We take a look at the local need, then we employ an activation of local food and beverage, investing in a whole area.”
The News will report further on Windsor’s plans as they are further solidified at upcoming Planning Commission and Village Council meetings — specifically when the developer applies for the rezoning of their planned development sites. The News plans to detail Windsor’s traffic studies, noise mitigation and parking plans in future issues.
The Yellow Springs News encourages respectful discussion of this article.
You must login to post a comment.
Don't have a login? Register for a free YSNews.com account.
No comments yet for this article.