A new class of housing: Repurposing Greater Boston’s vacant schools

By Megan Johnson, Globe correspondent, The Boston Globe

As the city of Boston incentivizes developers to turn offices into affordable housing, former educational buildings also are candidates worthy of conversion. But getting the go-ahead isn’t an easy task.

When Joe Favale moved into his East Boston condo in 1988, the Boston police officer already was familiar with the space. He went to school there.

“I had nightmares once in a while because I was sleeping in my fourth-grade classroom,” said Favale, 73, who is now retired from the force.

Perched in Eastie’s Eagle Hill neighborhood, the former Sheridan Elementary School served neighborhood residents like Favale, who attended kindergarten through fifth grade there. In the 1980s, it was converted into condos, and that’s when Favale moved in. It wasn’t a sentimental connection to his childhood that attracted Favale to buy the unit, however.

“The schoolyard was now a parking lot,” Favale said, “so I had off-street parking.”

Amid both a housing shortage and in the wake of post-pandemic workplace shifts in Boston, there’s been a significant discussion about converting vacant office buildings into residences. In July 2023, Mayor Michelle Wu announced the Downtown Residential Conversion Incentive Pilot Program, which launched the following October.

Former school buildings also are candidates worthy of conversion. “Boston leaders have called for closing three public schools and merging two others over the next year, the first of many moves to address declining enrollment and underused buildings, but one that will likely trigger the kind of backlash that previously prompted city officials to scuttle other closings,” the Globe’s Christopher Huffaker reported Tuesday.

Forget box-like new construction that lacks character — the promising frontier of affordable housing in Boston could be the classroom where you once dozed off learning Shakespeare.

“Classrooms are turned into units and offices, labs and cafeterias into amenity spaces, and courtyards into gardens,” said Adam J. Stein, executive vice president of WinnDevelopment, which, in a joint partnership with nonprofit Arch Communities, turned the former Mary E. Wells School in Southbridge into the Residences at Wells School, a 62-unit affordable apartment community for seniors, in 2022. The building provides residents with the proximity they need to downtown Southbridge and is near a bus stop and a Dunkin’.

The assignment can prove difficult

Many features make school buildings good options for conversion into housing, like their high ceilings and big windows that stream in natural light. But that doesn’t mean the structural conversion is a simple process. Those oversized windows? They’re expensive to replace and need to be replicated historically while also hitting sustainability guidelines. Kitchens and bathrooms need to be installed for every unit, as well as mechanical ventilation systems.

Generally, adapting an existing building mitigates the risk of what you may find in the ground because the foundation is already in place. Of course, that’s not always a sure thing. At the Hawthorne Lofts project in Salem, which will turn the former St. Mary’s School into 29 rental units with an artist preference in 2025, developers were shocked to discover the space underground wasn’t nearly as clear as they thought it was.

“We found an underground storage tank,” said Jennifer Kolodziej, project manager for the North Shore Community Development Coalition. “We did ground-penetrating radar, and that didn’t show anything. It was hiding underneath the steps.”

Neighborhood challenges

Sometimes, it’s what’s above ground that’s the biggest obstacle to getting the job done. When it comes to development, winning over the neighborhood is important. Locals often are emotionally attached to historic buildings, and developers have to face endless community meetings and social media input. Then there’s each special interest group that’s seeking to have its voices heard.

Andrew DeFranza, executive director of Harborlight Homes, recalled his experience when Harborlight teamed up with Beacon Communities to convert the former Beverly High School/Briscoe Middle School. They paid about $600,000 for the building in 2019 after a couple of years of community debate over what should be done with the space.

“You had the open space people [who] wanted to preserve the open space, the field, and the park. You had the historic people who wanted to keep the building up. You had the affordable housing people wanting it to be affordable housing, and you had the art community wanting it to have an artistic purpose,” said DeFranza, who estimated that it took at least five years to settle on what to do with the building. There were several bids for more money, but none of those matched the city’s priorities. Luckily, the mayor, City Council, and Planning Department supported a request for proposals that matched the community’s goals.

Ultimately, the city preserved and maintained both pieces of open space. Everyone agreed to no addition, no demolition, and full preservation of the building’s history, including the theater as a gesture to the art community. They settled on 85 affordable units for seniors and six artist live/work studios. In 2024, the school reopened as the Beverly Village for Living and the Arts.

To get projects done, experts said, cities and towns need to make the process smoother.

“It’s not enough for municipalities to make these properties available through an RFP or bid process. They need to be housing advocates,” said Stein, noting that this means working with the developers on items like entitlements, infrastructure, and matching funds to make these projects a priority for the community. “That’s what it takes to turn an old school into quality, stable housing and a property tax contributor.”

As for Favale, school’s out. He sold the one-bedroom unit in his old elementary school in December. But he’s not going far.

“I’m in East Boston’s backyard,” Favale said. “I’m in Winthrop.”

Megan Johnson can be reached at megansarahjohnson@gmail.com. Send comments to Address@globe.com, and subscribe to the our weekly real estate newsletter at Boston.com/address-newsletter.