A building that 100 years ago housed a furniture store on Monmouth Street in Newport got new life this weekend as eight apartments.

Brothers Bill and Tony Kreutzjans spent the past year rehabbing the building and joined several other developers converting some of the old buildings along Newport’s main corridor into housing.


Tenants began moving in this weekend, with five of the apartments already leased. The retail space is still on the market. Rents range from $675 to $1,100.

The Kreutzjanses invested $700,000 into the Dine-Schabell building to create the apartments and bottom-floor retail space.

State and federal historic tax credits totaling $130,000 helped in the building’s restoration.

The building had enticed Bill Kreutzjans Jr. for years.

“It is difficult to find anything like this,” Bill Kreutzjans Jr. said. “We have parking. The high ceilings are historic. Monmouth Street in general, with the new businesses coming in, it is a lot of fun and excitement.”

Nearby on Monmouth, work continues on 41 apartments being developed in the 120-year-old Marx Cromer building by Cincinnati developer Middle Earth. The construction fell behind schedule as crews worked to make the buildings conform to historical standards, said Glenn Kukla, a partner in Middle Earth Properties.

Kukla hopes to have the building completed in six to eight weeks. It will also feature 14,000 square feet of first-floor retail space.