GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Two former school building were approved for redevelopment as apartment complexes by the Grand Rapids City Planning Commission.

Commissioners approved the request by the Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF) to convert the former Eastern Avenue Elementary School at 815 Malta Avenue NE into 50 apartment units for low and medium income families.

The commission also approved a request by Cherry Street Capital to convert the former United Methodist Conference Center, 11 Fuller Avenue SE, into a 14-unit apartment building. The three-story brick building was originally built as a parochial school.

Ryan Schmidt, vice president of ICCF, said the non-profit housing developer still needs to complete financing for the project before it can begin converting the building into apartments for low-income and middle-income tenants.

Schmidt said the apartments would meet the need for affordable housing in the area. Residents of the apartments would fit in with the neighborhood's current income levels, he said.

The-four-story building would be converted into eight studio apartments, 31 one-bedroom apartments, 10 two-bedroom apartments and one three-bedroom unit, according to plans submitted by ICCF.

The building also would house an office for ICCF in the former gymnasium and include 58 parking spaces for residents and ICCF employees.

Planning commissioners approved ICCF's plans unanimously after a public hearing in which the project received mixed reviews.

Some neighbors said they were worried the project would create added noise and traffic on streets that are in bad condition and used heavily by a fleet of school buses that are stored and dispatched nearby.

Located in the Highland Park neighborhood, the Eastern Avenue School building has been vacant for the past 10 years, when Grand Rapids Public School consolidated four of its neighborhood elementary schools.

It was sold in 2012 to a developer who promised housing but flipped it to a charter school, who left it undeveloped until ICCF bought the property for $500,000 in 2016. The school's playground was given to the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

Built in the late 1920s, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. It is considered architecturally note-worthy because of its intricate brickwork facade and glazed terra cotta exterior.

The 45-year-old ICCF 44-year-old ICCF has built and redeveloped more than 500 units of owner-occupied housing in West Michigan and manages 168 affordable rental units. Last year, ICCF signed a purchase agreement to buy a portfolio of 177 homes in the Grand Rapids and Lansing area from a Chicago hedge fund.

The project by Cherry Street Capital would convert the former United Methodist Conference Center into a mixed-use development with up to 14 market rate apartments. The ground level space may be used as offices, according to the development application.

The building has been vacant since last December, when the church moved out after using is as an office building since the late 1960s.

The property was originally developed in 1905 as the Coade Avenue Christian School and later renamed Baldwin Christian School. It closed in the mid-1950s.

The developer said they would add greenspace to the property, which is currently surrounded by an asphalt parking lot.