Morning Journal/ Kristi R. Garabrandt The building section that housed the classrooms at St. Aloysius will be renovated into loft style apartments to be rented out by the building’s new owner Scout Solar.

EAST LIVERPOOL — The building that once housed St. Aloysius School now has a new owner and a new purpose.

Scout Solar, a solar power company based in Tempe, Arizona, who has signed contracts for projects in East Liverpool and Wellsville, has purchased the property which will be used for multiple purposes for $305,000 from the Holy Trinity Parish. The building has sat empty since the Youngstown Diocese decided to close the school after 130 years in 2015 when enrollment dropped by 50%.

According to Matt Brophey of Scout Solar, an East Liverpool native, the building will be the regional headquarters for Ohio, parts of the Midwest and along the east coast up to New Jersey. The property will also serve as residence for Scout Solar workers while they are working on local projects, a place to train students and in the future provide residence with loft style apartments for rent.

At least one classroom will be used as a training room for the students who are brought on as welders and electrician trainees from New Castle School of Trades and Columbiana County Career and Technical Center.

According to Brophey, these students who will learn how to build the structures and install the panels will help with the work locally.

Students will have the opportunity to graduate with a position at Scout Solar. Brophey said the top performers in the classes will be hired and there will also be a need for two full-time solar technicians to service the systems being built locally and then expand further. Students that are hired on full time to help build systems would be expected to travel to where ever the work is such as Ohio, New Jersey or Arizona.

While the parish is still working to remove items from the building, including all religious symbols, Scout Solar is in the process of moving in. Brophey anticipates the building being fully functional for what they need and ready to operate by April or May.

The area of the building containing 12 bedrooms and six bathrooms and once served as living quarters for nuns will now house the anticipated 24- to 26-member crew expected to work on the East Liverpool and Wellsville projects. The company has already started to work on those rooms and moving in beds and dressers.

The purchase of the property by Scout Solar could provide economic benefits from money spent in the community from the workers who will be staying there and from investments in local businesses such as the hiring of Kevin Kerr as the contractor for the work to make the building livable while doing maintenance not done in for eight years.

Additionally, the company is renting for the next six months 10,000 square feet of space at the old Hall China building in which it is currently storing 4,200 solar panels valued at $8.6 million. These are the panels to be used for the East Liverpool and Wellsville projects.

Brophey noted that Scout Solar is injecting capital into the community by utilizing local companies like Hall China and Kerr and he also said that he believes it’s going to all trickle down and be a big boost.

Brophey also said that Scout Solar is expecting to invest at least $400,000 into the building, with renovations including approximately $185,000 to be spent replacing the roof with a new sheet metal roof within the next couple of weeks.

Additional plans for the 35,000-square-foot building include the addition of a garage door to allow the basement and old cafeteria areas to be used for storage and the converting of classrooms to loft apartments which will be rented out when completed. It will probably be one to two years, before the apartments are ready, Brophey said.

The company also has to look into asbestos abatement. Brophey said there is asbestos in the floors, ceilings and pipes in a portion of the building the company does not plan to utilize anytime soon.

According to Brophey, Scout Solar is in talks with the Columbiana County Landbank about using Brownfield money to help with the abatement.

Brophey said he expects that with the money the company will be saving by housing workers and not having travel expenses such as gas and hotels for over 20 employees for three months, and the income from the lofts once completed and rented, that the building will pretty much pay for itself.

Prior to buying the building, Scout Solar had been looking at several buildings in East Liverpool, but the math wasn’t adding up on purchase price and additional funds needed to invest in the buildings.

Brophey said the St. Aloysius building had the right price and meets all the company’s needs for uses and location as it puts them in a central position to all the current projects.

Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com