LYNN — City officials are again seeking proposals for the redevelopment of the former Thurgood Marshall Middle School on Porter Street into senior housing four months after rejecting a bid for its potential reuse.
In February, the City Council rejected a bid that would have replaced the 95-year-old building on Porter Street with 120 apartments — 70 market rate and 50 reserved for low- and moderate-income elders — in a wood-frame complex.
B’nai B’rith Housing, a Brighton nonprofit that builds affordable homes for seniors in Greater Boston, was the only bidder in the city’s last Request for Proposals (RFP) — the City Council said the bid did not meet the requirements of the RFP.
James Lamanna, the city’s attorney, said that last time, the combination of asking for only 120 total units, with 80 percent of those as market rate units and 20 percent subsidized, or affordable apartments, along with the $4 million sales price was too restrictive.
The elderly in the city tend to want to downsize, he said, because a mortgage while living on a pension can be difficult.
On Tuesday night, the RFP Committee discussed reissuing an RFP that allowed for more units and more subsidized housing for seniors 62 and older. The preference would be for a majority of one-bedroom apartments and there would be a requirement of one parking space per unit.
The market-rate and subsidized housing preference was flipped — the new RFP drafted will ask for a combination of 80 percent subsidized housing and 20 percent market-rate, Lamanna said.
The consensus of the committee was to not set a limit on how many units could be in the development — School Committee member John Ford, who sits on the RFP committee, said the developer should determine the amount of units.
Michael Donovan, chief of Inspectional Services, added that they should let the market decide what it’s going to do, as far as how many units there would be.
City Council President Darren Cyr said developers have indicated they were deterred from responding to the last RFP because 120 units would not have allowed them to make a profit with what they would have had to invest in the project.
But leaving it unlimited still allows the City Council the freedom to deny a project proposal that would not be in the neighborhood’s best interest, Lamanna said.
With the previous process, the city would have contributed $2.2 million for the demolition of the shuttered school, but this time around, Cyr said the developer will incur the cost of demolition.
The committee discussed lowering the minimum age required to live in the potential senior housing development to 55 years old, but ultimately opted to keep the requirement to 62 and older, with one reason being that 55-year-olds are more apt to still be working and have more cars, Lamanna said.
Last month, city officials, including Cyr, Lamanna, Ward 2 City Councilor Rick Starbard and Donovan appeared before the School Committee asking for a six-month extension to sell the property.
The extension was granted, but the sale must be approved by the School Committee and proceeds from the sale will be reserved for school department purposes.
There’s definitely a need for affordable senior housing in the city, Cyr said, as there aren’t many available options. For instance, he said King’s Beach Towers, which offers affordable housing for seniors, has a wait list of more than 350 people.
Cyr, the ward councilor for the neighborhood the shuttered school is located in, said neighbors have indicated to him that they don’t want to see an empty lot with a dilapidated building sitting there, but rather want to see something beneficial for the neighborhood.
Lamanna told the committee he would present a new RFP next week. Cyr said the goal is to start soliciting proposals in mid-July to early August.
