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Old hotel building occupied by Charlestown YMCA set to be converted into 100 affordable units
A permit for the project, estimated at $30 million, was issued July 23, according to the city.
A project to convert the building occupied by the Charlestown YMCA into 100 units of affordable and “supportive” apartments has received its building permit from the city.
Currently, the YMCA of Greater Boston occupies the ground floor of 150 Third Avenue in the Charlestown Navy Yard. In the past, other portions of the building operated as the Constitution Inn and co-housed the Dennis McLaughlin House, an emergency shelter program for women and children.
The building is owned by the Boston Planning and Development Agency and leased by the YMCA of Greater Boston.
The “Independence at Charlestown Navy Yard” project from the Archdiocese of Boston and St. Francis House was approved by the Boston Planning and Development Agency in December 2023. It will see the renovation of 78,000 square feet of the building, converting 147 of the existing hotel-style rooms into 100 permanent affordable units.
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The new apartments, a range of studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms, will be leased to renters earning less than 80 percent of area media income. Forty-eight of the apartments will follow a permanent supportive housing model, which offers people who have experienced homelessness the affordable units alongside individualized services to help them “live successfully in the community long term,” focusing in particular on women and veterans, according to project documents.
The YMCA of Greater Boston will continue to lease about 17,712 square feet of the building to operate the Charlestown facility with expanded programming, including childcare and a new fitness center.
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A group of Charlestown residents filed a lawsuit to stop the project last year, alleging the proposal violated their First Amendment rights and that its implementation could cause “significant adverse harms.” The case was dismissed, records in Suffolk Superior Court show.
A permit for the project, estimated at $30 million, was issued July 23, according to the city.
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