The Blackstone Lofts are the most recent incarnation of the old ‘Plantation Tobacco’ building at the corner of 2nd and Lunenburg Streets in downtown Blackstone, Virginia. Purchased from a private owner in 2009, the building was an obsolete shell, but an important reminder of the tobacco history that drove the economy in the region for so many years. Waukeshaw planned 25 market-rate units for the building, in an area where only low-income apartments had been built for 30 years. Conventional wisdom held that low rents and subsidized housing were all that was viable. The $2.5M project, financed by Virginia Community Capital and State and Federal Historic Tax Credits, was completed at the end of 2011 and opened the following January. The project now enjoys 100% occupancy—it rents at more than 10% of our original projections. Blackstone mayor Billy Coleburn called it “one of the most important things to happen to Blackstone in all of 2012”.