Tag: Mayor Mazzarella

Back in session: Carter School turning into apartments

It’s been more than 30 years since the sounds of learning have been heard inside the three-story brick building at 261 West St.

Soon, adults and children will be walking the halls again — and this time, they will call it home.

A ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 29 marked the start of the conversion of the former Carter Junior High School into 39 units of affordable housing.

The building will have 14 one-bedroom apartments, 21 two-bedroom units and four three-bedroom units when work is complete, which is expected to take about a year and cost about $17 million.

There will also be storage for tenants, an exercise room, community space and parking. The building’s exterior and its boiler will be historically restored.

Each unit would be classified as affordable, according to documents from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including 16 units that would be affordable to households earning less than 30 percent of the region’s median income.

The hope, according to a press release from building owner NewVue Communities, is for the building to be certified by Enterprise Green Communities and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built in 1904, the former Carter School was named after James Gordon Carter, a Leominster native, teacher and member of the first Massachusetts Board of Education. It served as the city’s high school until 1963; in fact, the building still bears the Leominster High School inscription above the front entrance. Then, from 1964-84, the Carter School was a junior high school.

The City of Leominster sold the Carter School to a private developer in 2000, but attempts to redevelop the building were not successful. NewVue Communities, based in Fitchburg, bought the building in 2016.

“It was such a significant part of Leominster’s rich history, and it broke my heart to see it in such terrible condition,” said NewVue Vice President Bill Brassard, Carter Junior High School Class of 1981. “I am proud to be part of a team that will revitalize this building and create a new use for it.”

NewVue Communities teamed up with city officials, Davis Square Architects, Hutter Construction and Wingate Companies to bring the Carter School project to the phase celebrated last week. Wingate, which will manage the building for NewVue, will start accepting apartment applications in the summer of 2019.

“We are excited to be here today,” Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said. “This building was in such tough shape that we did not know how to redevelop the building. Given NewVue’s track record of taking on the most challenging projects with great success, I was thrilled when they asked us to partner with them to create affordable housing that is such an important part of Leominster’s history.”

The Carter School is NewVue’s second affordable housing project in Leominster. The first was Water Mill Apartments on Water Street.

Project partners and funders for the Carter School renovation include the City of Leominster, the Fitchburg-Leominster HOME Consortium, the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, Avidia Bank, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the National Park Service, NeighborWorks America, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership and the TD Charitable Foundation.

SourceLeominster Champion

Former Leominster school being converted to affordable housing

NewVue Communities is helping to breathe new life into the former Carter Junior High School, which has been vacant more than 30 years.

Wednesday, state and local officials and community leaders, some of whom attended Carter Junior High at 261 West St., across from the West End Diner, gathered under a tent for a groundbreaking ceremony outside the three-story brick school building to kick off its redevelopment into 39 affordable housing units.

Leominster Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella said that in 1985, former Mayor Richard J. Girouard Sr. asked Mr. Mazzarella and his business partner, who were in construction at the time, to tour the deteriorating building and consider redeveloping it. The school – built in 1904 and named after Leominster native and teacher James Gordon Carter, who was a member of the first Massachusetts Board of Education – served as the city’s high school until 1963, then a middle school from 1964 until 1984, when it was left vacant.

“I walked through the building with my partner and said, ‘If you give us the building and $100,000, we’ll do it over,’ ” Mr. Mazzarella said, adding that the cost of the project outweighed the benefits at the time.

After showing it himself to potential buyers “a million times,” the mayor said, he is excited about NewVue’s team effort and passion to see the project through. NewVue is a regional nonprofit that specializes in redeveloping properties into housing.

“Given NewVue’s track record of taking on the most challenging projects with great success, I was thrilled when they asked us to partner with them to create affordable housing (in a property) that is such an important part of Leominster’s history,” Mr. Mazzarella said.

In 2000, the city sold the school to a private developer, but after multiple unsuccessful attempts to redevelop it, NewVue Communities stepped in, officials said, and acquired the building in 2016.

NewVue Communities Vice President Bill J. Brassard, who attended Carter from 1979 to 1981, said he was happy to see the school restored.

“It was such a significant part of Leominster’s rich history and it broke my heart to see it in such terrible condition,” Mr. Brassard said. “I am proud to be part of a team that will revitalize this building and create a new use for it.”

When renovations are completed in 2019, the building will have 14 one-bedroom apartments, and 21 two-bedroom and four three-bedroom units. It will also have tenant storage, an exercise room, community space and parking. The exterior of the building and the existing boiler will be historically restored, officials said. The goal is for the building to be certified by Enterprise Green Communities and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Janelle Chan, undersecretary for housing and community development for the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, said her office was glad the building will benefit future generations and become an asset for Leominster.

Ms. Chan said it is “pretty cool” that people who attended the school want to come back to live there and that children will be back in the hallways. Her office, she said, is proud to support the project.

The $17.4 million project is using historic and low-income housing tax credits, she said, along with state and local subsidies and private loans to rehabilitate the building that is in significant disrepair. Four units will be reserved for formerly homeless households, she said, who will have supportive services provided by the Massachusetts Opportunity Council. All units will be available to tenants at or below 60 percent of the average median income, and 16 units are reserved for tenants at or below 30 percent.

Marc Dohan, executive director of NewVue Communities, said the development team also includes city officials, Davis Square Architects, Hutter Construction and Wingate Companies, who have been working on bringing the project to fruition over the past five years.

Project partners and funders include the city of Leominster, Mr. Mazzarella, the Fitchburg-Leominster HOME Consortium, the Department of Housing and Community Development, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, Avidia Bank, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the National Park Service, NeighborWorks America, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership and the TD Charitable Foundation.

SourceTelegram