Image courtesy of Pennrose

The first of two school-to-housing adaptive reuse projects in Auburn brings 55 income-restricted and market-rate apartments to senior citizens.

Developer Pennrose and state and local officials marked the completion of the project at 10 Church St., which included partial demolition and an addition to the 1920s-era school.

Eighty percent of the units were rented to households earning 60 percent or less of median income, with the remainder at market rates. The complex was 100 percent leased in six months, Pennrose Regional Vice President Charlie Adams said.

The property includes a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units, community lounges and public meeting space.

The project broke ground in 2020 after receiving low-income federal low-income tax credits and additional funding from state housing programs and construction financing from Citizens Bank.

A second project is under construction at the former Julia Bancroft School in Auburn, including 60 units of 62-and-over housing. The building will open in October, Adams said.

Pennrose is partnering with the Hyde Square Task Force on the conversion of the former Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain into housing, and was recently selected by the state Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to redevelop the Soldiers Home in Chelsea into a mixed-income community.