Rebecca Gennett remembers six years ago when her child’s babysitter, a Binghamton University student, showed her where she was living off campus.
“There’s got to be something better than this,” Gennett said. “Even the nicest houses available looked horrible.”
Gennett, who had no previous experience in real estate, took matters into her own hands and in 2002 formed Loftiness, LLC, a company that renovates historic Binghamton sites into luxury apartments designed with the desires of BU students in mind. In the past five years Loftiness has renovated four different buildings in the Downtown area.
“It takes a while to find the right properties,” Gennett said. “I like to work on brick houses, and it needs to be in the right location.”
At each property, Gennett completely removes everything inside the existing houses and creates chic apartment-style clusters. Each building, about 6,400 square feet, features interior brick walls, wood floors and stainless steel appliances, creating a striking combination of contemporary design and historic architecture.
Gennett is responsible for the entire interior layout of the buildings and fashioned a unique staircase in each house as her signature.
“In each of the apartments I designed a different type of staircase to make things look more fun. It has to look funky, because this is for college students,” she said.
Gennett could not provide the cost of rent for the residences, but said prices are negotiated with tenants.
Loftiness’ most recent acquisition is a large brick building on Court Street adjacent to the Main Street Bridge, renovated in May 2007. The property features 12 bedrooms, all with a view overlooking the Susquehanna River. According to Gennett, the waterfront view is one of the most attractive aspects to many prospective renters. The exterior of the Court Street property has been refurbished as well, restoring the front windows to their original shape as well as painting the brick gold and orange.
Lee Garrett, a BU senior, lives in the most recently renovated Loftiness property on Court Street. It’s his first year of living off campus.
“The building has a really unique style, and it’s in a convenient location,” he said. “It looks really trendy, and the same place in a bigger city would have been much more expensive.”
Gennett believes that as more high-end living spaces become available to BU students, there will be a greater presence of students in the Downtown area. She cites the opening of the University Downtown Center last semester as a critical factor in bridging the gap between BU students and the city, and encouraging more students to do business Downtown.
“This is where students want to be,” she said, “and the more students that come, more economic opportunities will open up for everyone.”
Her first property, the original Binghamton Firehouse on Carroll Street, now houses students as well as a local theater company.
“The cooperation between the two groups is amazing, and it really brings the students closer to the community,” Gennett said.