LYNN — Sitting vacant for more than a decade, the Lynn Armory is finally being renovated and brought back to life. In this lifetime, the building will include 52 units of mixed-income, veterans housing.
Thursday, Mayor Jared Nicholson, Charlie Gaeta, Executive Director of Lynn Housing and Neighborhood Development (LHAND), Peggy Phelps, LHAND Planning and Development Director, and Aaron Clausen, City’s Principal Planner, gave a tour of the Armory to state delegation, including Ed Augustus, Secretary of Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC). The group also participated in a roundtable discussion at the LHAND offices.
The EOHLC was created by the Healey-Driscoll Administration and established in 2023 to create more homes and lower housing costs for Massachusetts residents.
In 2018, former Governor Charlie Baker signed legislation transferring the state-controlled Armory property to Neighborhood Development Associates (NDA), which is the nonprofit development arm of LHAND.
“Everything’s coming together, … and we can help you (the EOHLC) end veteran homelessness,” Gaeta said about the Armory project.
At the event, attendees were given the NDA proposal for the Lynn Armory.
The proposal states that the Armory apartment will create 52 new units: 16 studios, 35 one bedrooms, and one two bedroom.
According to the proposal, the Armory features a head house that is 68 feet wide and 86 feet deep; a drill shed that is 127 feet long; and a detached garage building.
The head building will be renovated to include one two bedroom and nine one bedrooms, and a studio.
The drill shed will be renovated to include 11 one bedrooms and 16 studios.
The detached garage building will be renovated to include 16 one bedroom units on the first floor and the newly constructed second floor.
“We have sitting areas, you know, a place where people can come out. Even though the units are small, they can come out of the units into the community and sit and read their paper,” Phelps said about future tenants. “It’ll be a real home.”
The Armory project has been awarded state and federal historic tax credits, and the City has committed local funding through $1 million ARPA and $1 million HOME funds.
The proposal states that along with the funding, NDA submitted a One Stop Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) in 2019, and an updated application in 2023.
General contractor Colantonio INC. has been chosen for the job.
“I just really believe in this project and I think it’s well worth it to preserve it in place. It belongs on the commons,” Phelps said. “You feel a sense of pride when you drive by it, and now it’s going to be veterans housing. What better use for it?”
