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A Worcester motel will be converted into 90 units of supportive housing under plans approved by the city’s Planning Board over opposition from some residents.
Nonprofit Worcester Community Housing Resources plans to renovate the Quality Inn and Suites at 50 Oriol Drive. The proposal generated “heated public comment,” according to a Worcester Business Journal report, along with support from Planning Board Vice Chair Edward Moynihan.
“We have to rethink as a society what we do with the homeless situation, what we do with substance abuse, what we do with mental illness. It’s up to all of us,” Moynihan commented at last week’s hearing.
The current owner, GS Hotel Management LLC, acquired the 78,720-square-foot motel in 2008 for $4.8 million, according to data compiled by The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. The hotel was originally completed in 1976 and occupies a 4.1-acre lot.
Developers plan to update the building facade and main entrance and reconfigure the parking lot to provide 183 parking spaces, according to application materials submitted by attorney Todd Rodman of Seder & Chandler LLP in Worcester. The swimming pool will be filled and converted into a community garden.
Reaction to the project mirrors the controversy in Dorchester over proposed conversion of a Morrissey Boulevard hotel into 104 apartments for formerly homeless individuals.
The Community Builders proposes 104 apartments for formerly homeless people at the Comfort Inn. The facility would be operated by The Pine Street Inn.
The proposal generated more than 400 public comments, according to The Dorchester Reporter, including a letter of opposition by six elected officials: state Sen. Nick Collins, state Rep. Dan Hunt, City Council President Ed Flynn, and Councillors Erin Murphy, Michael Flaherty, and Frank Baker. Officials cited more than 200 existing homeless beds within a “small radius” of the property and the facilities’ generation of calls to police.
Another hotel-to-housing conversion is under review by the Boston Planning & Development Agency at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The Archdiocese of Boston’s Planning Office for Urban Affairs proposes 126 units of mixed-income housing at 150 Third Ave., including studio apartments for former homeless individuals and workforce housing units reserved for households earning a maximum 60 percent of area median income. POUA is partnering with St. Francis House on the project.
