The Studios apartments remodeled, now accepting tenants in Grove

Back in October 2022, an electrical fire featuring a lot of smoke led to The Studios apartment complex being vacated.
With other factors leading to a complete remodel mostly during the past year, a celebration of the work done on the complex was held with an Open House on Saturday, March 29. This was done in conjunction with a Mountain Grove Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting ceremony.
Owner Chris Swatosh, who purchased the building with his wife in 2015, was excited to show off the complete remodel recently finished at the 201 E. 2nd St. location in Mountain Grove. The building inspector provided the location its certificate of occupancy two weeks ago.
“We’re excited to offer clean, safe and affordable housing,” Swatosh said during the ribbon cutting event.
The location features 20 total apartments available to rent. This includes four studio apartments that have a big room with a bathroom and they are furnished. The furnished apartments will also include a coffee pot, cups, coffee, coffee acoutrements, refrigerator, hot plate, microwave and dishes. They cost $400/week or $1,200/month and can be rented starting May 1.
There are also a total of 16 one bedroom, one bathroom apartments as well. These apartments include electric, gas, water, sewer and trash utilities costing $780. A deposit of $780 is required beginning April 1.
The journey began with the water remaining on in the building when it was without power for a time after the 2022 fire, leading to the pipes freezing and bursting.
This caused significant damage to an old boiler system that was used to provide heat to the building.
“And we had to make a decision, spend nearly six figures to repair and replace the old boiler system (would provide heat, but not air) or install a different system to heat and cool the building, which was much more expensive,” Swatosh said. “For several reasons, we elected the latter option.”
In the meantime, Glen Beller, of Mountain Grove, installed a brand new electrical system as the building had old knob-and-tube electrical wiring previously.
Whiddon’s Air and Electrical, LLC from Ava provided a bid and then installed 21, 1.5-ton Rheem A/C with gas furnaces and three, 5 -on Rheem A/C with gas furnaces with outdoor condensers.
“At this point, we decided I needed to go all-in and do a complete remodel rather than trying to put a band-aid on a broken arm,” Swatosh said. “The building was in desperate need of some TLC, and we decided that if we were ever going to replace old windows, replace old plumbing, and make other substantive upgrades, the best time to do it was now.”
So new plumbing was installed in every bathroom and kitchen as well as in the complex laundry room.
Several toilets, sinks and showers were either replaced or repaired.
Tyler Williams, of Hartville, replaced the flooring in each room and in the hallways, with the product coming from Discount Dave’s.
Then came the windows as Ozark Window Manufacturing building and installed 40 new windows as well as a new basement door.
Whiddon’s Air and Electrical also repaired the ripped-up sheet rock, framed in a dozen windows (on the inside) that lacked trim, installed quarter round in nearly every apartment, rebuilt a brand-new staircase from the basement to the main floor, built an extra wall for security and structural stability in the basement, installed drop ceilings in the lobby and in various apartments, installed new lighting in the hallways, and re-built a few walls, which had water damage.
At the end of the remodel process, Misty Champagne, of Seymour, and Heather Wake, of Mountain Grove, along with her construction and cleaning business S2F Construction, LLC, worked on the deep cleaning, painting and more.
History
The Open House event gave Janet Azevedo a chance to walk down memory lane. She grew up in the complex when her grandmother, Lola Newton, owned the Newton Hotel before her parents later took it over and ran it until 1972.
She was able to see where her old bedroom was at and enjoyed touring the renovated facility.
“I grew up here,” said the Class of 1967 graduate.
Azevedo showed a circa 1951 photo showing the front of the Newton Hotel her grandmother owned and operated.
Another photo showed her and her older brother on the front porch of the hotel back when she was a child.