LYNN ― On Thursday, the School Committee voted in favor of turning the Thurgood Marshall Middle School property over to the city so it could be sold to a developer and turned into senior housing.
City Council President and mayoral candidate Darren Cyr, along with Ward 2 Councilor Richard Starbard, joined the meeting to update the School Committee on the subject. Starbard said that they had put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the third time in five years. They have received five responses and East Boston Community Development Group was chosen at the public-property meeting as the best suitor for the site.
EBCDG offered to pay not only the $8 million cost of the building’s demolition, but also to pay an additional $2.5 million to the city. The city doesn’t have the money to demolish the building on its own.
“It is really a $10.5 million win for the city,” Starbard said. “It is a win for 104 residents who are waiting on the waiting list to get into affordable senior housing and it is a win for the neighborhood.”
Starbard called the property “the blight of the neighborhood.”
“In the five years since the building was vacated, there have been fires, break-ins, scraping of metal, dumping, you name it,” he said.
Starbard asked the School Committee to go forward with the vote to turn the property over to the city so the city could proceed with closing the deal with EBCDG.
Starbard said the developer has a great track record with refurbishing old schools. He personally toured a number of the developer’s buildings in the summer of 2020, including the old East Boston High School, which came out “phenomenal.”
Cyr testified that everybody in the neighborhood was in agreement that they didn’t want another school there or families with children.
“In all the meetings it was clear that the neighbors wanted to see senior housing in that location,” Cyr said.
If developed by EBCDG, the building will offer housing for individuals 55 years old and over, he said; he added that very low-income residents currently in the neighborhood would probably qualify for these units.
The city’s Chief Financial Officer Michael Bertino said that he looked at the proposals and concurred with the selection of EBCDG. Since the property is in the school district’s possession, any expenses to keep it safe have been coming out of the school budget for over five years, Bertino said.
Cyr said that these expenses have included securing and maintaining the building and having the police and fire departments respond to fires and trespassing.
“It’s becoming a burden on a daily basis,” Cyr said.
The city doesn’t have the money to abate the asbestos discovered in the building, Cyr said. ECBDG will encapsulate the asbestos and make the building safe.
“This is something I advocate for since the beginning ― senior housing,” said committee member John E. Ford Jr. “There is a shortage in the city and we definitely don’t need more students.”
Committee member and mayoral candidate Michael Satterwhite had several concerns about the proposal. He said that there was no discussion on hiring Lynn contractors or Lynn businesses. He also wasn’t sure how the committee could be certain that Lynn senior residents who are waiting for the housing at Kings Beach Tower would qualify for the area median income (AMI) requirements of this developer.
In addition, Satterwhite wanted to know what kind of amenities would be offered to the community.
Starbard and Cyr responded that there will be a minimum 5000-square-foot satellite senior services area and a rehab facility in addition to services like a beauty salon.
“We already agreed on RFP before and if we wanted those things there, we should have agreed on them at that time,” said vice chair Donna Coppola, proposing to move forward and vote on the motion. Ford and member Lorraine Gately agreed with her.
Assistant City Solicitor James Lamanna said it was legal for the committee to put the motion forward.
The majority of the committee’s members felt that they had enough information to make the decision and vote on the motion. Satterwhite voted against the motion because the agenda for the meeting didn’t mention it.
Alena Kuzub can be reached at [email protected].
