LYNN — Tenants like Natasha Soolkin, director of The New American Center, will have to relocate their businesses after The Economic Development & Industrial Corporation (EDIC/Lynn) agreed to sell the JB Blood Building to KIPP Academy Lynn.
Soolkin said she just learned about the need to relocate a week or two ago. She said she was surprised. She said the New American Center, which serves the refugee and immigrant population in the Lynn area, moved to the Blood Building in 2009. It is located on the fourth floor.
“I didn’t expect it all,” Soolkin said. “We kind of feel at home here, very comfortable. It’s unexpected and sad.”
KIPP Academy plans to renovate the 90-year-old building and use it for its high school division. KIPP is currently the largest of 12 tenants in the four-story building, leasing parts of the first, third and fourth floors for grade K-2 classrooms, offices, and cafeteria space.
James Cowdell, EDIC executive director, and Kevin Taylor, chief operating officer for KIPP Massachusetts, would not disclose the sales price.
Caleb Dolan, KIPP Academy Lynn executive director, said he hopes to have the sale closed by early fall. He said KIPP Massachusetts and other sources — a mix of philanthropy and financing — is funding the purchase of the JB Blood Building, located at 20 Wheeler St., and its future renovations.
“We’re excited to invest in a historic building like that and keep it fresh with a whole bunch of KIPPsters,” Dolan said.
Current tenants in the Blood Building include the Family Success Center, operated by the Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development, and the United Way, a commercial kitchen, Arts After Hours, Pathways (formerly Operation Bootstrap), the New American Center for refugees, and JOI Child Care. All will be given several months to relocate, Cowdell said.
Cowdell said every lease is up before the sale will be completed, except for two — JOI and the New American Center — and EDIC is assisting those two tenants by hiring a broker to help them with a new home.
Soolkin said the center has not talked to its clients about the change yet, but will have to soon. She said the center needs to stay in Lynn, as almost all of their clients live in the city, and most don’t drive or have cars. The search for a new home has just started, she added.
In the 2017-18 school year, KIPP will have 1,338 students, including 365 in grades K-2 at the Blood Building and the rest in grades 5-12 at its main building in the Highlands. Third and fourth grades are not offered yet. Renovations to the Blood Building are expected to begin in March 2018 and take about 15 months.
In the fall of the 2019, KIPP Academy Lynn Elementary and Middle schools will be at the High Rock Street site, while the high school, KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate, will be in the Blood Building.
