WATERBURY — Citing the lack of housing and shortage of healthcare workers, Waterbury officials plan to convert the former St. Mary’s Elementary School into housing for those in the medical field.
The project, part of a broader state effort to boost housing and provide funding specifically for housing geared toward health care workers, involves the city partnering with a developer to convert the former school into affordable housing.
Developer proposals are due by Oct. 2.
Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. told CT Examiner that the sale and redevelopment of the school complex, located at 55 Cole St. and 320 East Main St., is part “of the overall vision we have for downtown.”
“Within all of the cities, and probably even the smaller towns throughout Connecticut, there is a real need for housing, and what we call today workforce housing,” Pernerewski said. “It’s for people who are working but still struggling with what rents and housing prices have gone up to.”
Pernerewski stated that while the exact rent prices for the new development are still uncertain, they would “be affordable.”
The school properties were vacated in 2018 and the city acquired them for $1 million in August 2023 from the Archdiocese of Hartford. The parcel includes 2.21 acres of land, five buildings and a parking area. City officials said they can accommodate 90 units — approximately 60 units in the existing buildings and up to 30 units of new construction in the parking areas of the property.
Additionally, the properties would now be included on the city’s tax rolls.
Pernerewski noted that a key incentive for developers is the potential access to $20 million in state bonding funds. The state may offer upwards of $20 million to a developer if it meets certain state Department of Housing criteria.
If the developer secures state funding, they would determine how to allocate it.
“In talking to some people, there’s the idea of potentially having $10 million to rehab the existing buildings and another $10 million to build out the new building,” Pernerewski said.
City leaders said most of the residents would work at either St. Mary’s Hospital or Waterbury Hospital.
The housing and pedestrian traffic would bring “much-needed life to the downtown,” Waterbury Board of Aldermen President Michael DiGiovancarlo told CT Examiner. “Our downtown is slowly coming back, but this would definitely be a boost.”
DiGiovancarlo pointed out that many residents left the city after factory closures, and the downtown area was further impacted by the negative effects of COVID-19.
“Because of COVID, we lost [a lot of] downtown workers. We’ve lost the buildings that used to be full of workers. They are no more. Some have moved out of the city for reasons other than COVID,” he said. “Things are getting better and there has been progress.”
A positive sign, DiGiovancarlo said, was the sharp dip in the mill rate over the past four years from 60.21 to 49.44. The closeness of the two hospitals to the new housing is also an added bonus, he said.
“Especially for St. Mary’s. You walk out of your apartment and you are right at work,” he said. “It’s going to really benefit the [St. Mary’s] workers. You won’t even need a vehicle. Think of the money you will save just on gas time and transportation. You are not wasting time commuting to work; you are right there. And, Waterbury Hospital is just a very short ride across [the city].”
Tommy Hyde, executive director of the Waterbury Development Corp., the city’s nonprofit development arm, told CT Examiner that his agency was responsible for managing the request for proposal process on behalf of the city.
Refurbishing old schools is not a typical development project, Hyde said, but noted that retail space in addition to housing is not out of the question.
“We kind of let the developer choose what they want to do,” said Hyde. “… A retail component depends on what the developer’s vision of the rehabilitation will be.”