LYNN — After 30 years of ownership, the city of Lynn is looking to sell the multi-service center on Willow Street.
The building, located at 100 Willow St., houses My Brother’s Table, a Lynn-based soup kitchen, the Lynn homeless shelter, and includes an office presence for the Essex County Sheriff’s Department and Health Innovations.
The city, which leases to those entities, purchased the property from the federal government in 1990. Contingent upon the purchase was a deed restriction, which required the city to provide services to the homeless population for 30 years at 100 Willow St.
That deed restriction, along with the lease for My Brother’s Table, is up at the end of this year, which prompted city officials to start exploring a potential sale of the property, according to Ward 2 Councilor Rick Starbard, who chairs the City Council’s Public Property and Parks Committee.
“The lease is up with My Brother’s Table, who wants to stay there, and we want them to stay there,” said Starbard. “The building needs quite a bit of work so we’re just going to explore what’s out there and what proposals may be out there that may be beneficial for everybody.
“It’s not like we’re trying to get them out of there because we do want them to stay. We know they provide a valuable service.”
On Tuesday, the Public Property and Parks Committee voted to issue a Request for Proposals to seek out potential buyers, which was affirmed later that night by the full City Council.
The RFP, which requires a minimum bid of $500,000, calls for the sale of the multi-service center at 100 Willow St., and the parking lot at 57-61 Liberty St., with deed restrictions requiring the purchaser to operate a large-scale food pantry on the first floor for a period of 30 years, and the homeless shelter on the second floor until the current tenant relocates its services to an alternate location.
“We’ll see what comes through with the RFP,” said Starbard. “If it doesn’t work out for everyone involved we could always go back to whatever we’ve been doing for the past 20 years.”
Starbard said the RFP stipulates that the buyer would purchase the property with the understanding that My Brother’s Table will continue to operate out of the building, and also provides an opportunity for the soup kitchen to purchase the property.
The document also stipulates that the new owner would be responsible for making repairs to the building, which Starbard estimates would cost upwards of $1 million.
“The city shouldn’t be in the landlord business,” said Starbard. “As far as upkeeping the building and liability and having to employ people to oversee it and all — that’s why, if we end up with a property, whether it’s tax foreclosure, we immediately put it up for sale.”
Dianne Kuzia Hills, executive director of My Brother’s Table, said the RFP is reflective of the city’s commitment to ensuring people have enough to eat, a need that has become more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of people spent a lot of time looking at this building, the services here, looking at the need in the city,” said Hills. “I think it’s clear that they want the current food services to remain in the building. Clearly, the pandemic has really opened people’s eyes to food insecurity in Lynn.
“Certainly on our end, we’ve done our very best to meet that need,” she said, adding that My Brother’s Table provided more than 600,000 meals over the first 10 months of this year, three times more than was done last year.
Hills said the organization has been looking for potential new spaces to relocate to for the past two years, because there was some uncertainty over what would happen when the deed restriction expired at the end of this month.
Some of the “political players” in the city had wanted the soup kitchen to relocate to a different location at one point, Hills said, noting that there was some concern about possibly being displaced when the city decided to sell the building.
“I think it’s hard for anyone to have to see people suffering and have to see people being hungry and homeless,” said Hills. “I think that’s tough to look at every day. I think a lot of cities struggle with that issue. I think people thought there would be a better place than in the heart of the downtown.”
However, she said some of that opinion was swayed by an analysis done by the organization that showed that 80 percent of the soup kitchen’s guests live within seven blocks of the building, and that the property is located right in the center of where the poorest people in the city live.
“We were sort of on tenterhooks the whole time,” said Hills. “What would happen when the deed restriction was done? Would we have to relocate?”
My Brother’s Table is in discussions with the city to renew its lease and is exploring whether it’s feasible for them to purchase the building, Hills said.
“Obviously, it’s a lot of money but we’ve put a lot of money into our facility,” she said. “For us to relocate, we’re talking millions and millions of dollars.”
The second floor tenant, the Lynn Shelter Association, is planning to relocate its homeless shelter from the Willow Street building to its Liberty Street property, the Osmund Building, after its rehabilitation project is completed.
“The city has committed to us that we will have that space until we no longer need it,” said Mark Evans, LSA executive director. “We’re working really collaboratively with them around our timeline. As we know, they know. We’ll be there until we can finish this project.”
