Natick St. Patrick’s Project Finally Ready For Groundbreaking

NATICK, MA — Thursday will mark the end of a long road for the former St. Patrick's School property in Natick, but also the beginning of another one.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for the property, which is now owned by the Stonegate Group.

Stonegate plans to turn the site into a mixed-use development that features a mix of 46 affordable and market-rate units, with ground-floor restaurant and retail space.

The project also includes four duplex townhomes to be constructed at the rear portion of the property facing Lincoln and Wilson Streets, Stonegate officials said.

Because it is an affordable housing development under the state's Chapter 40B law, at least 20 percent of the units must be classified as affordable.

Some will be set aside for households earning 80 percent of the area median income, or AMI, while others will be geared toward those who make 30 to 50 percent of the AMI.

The ceremony is scheduled for Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the property, 45 East Central St. A rain date is set for Friday at the same time, if necessary.

This project faced some COVID-related hurdles during the roughly eight-year period since the property was acquired by Stonegate.

The commercial space inclusion was contingent upon a 2020 Town Meeting vote to extend the downtown zoning mixed-use zoning district to include the school, but the Town Meeting date was delayed three times that summer due to COVID.

The development team also had to appear before town boards for several months to receive input before final approval could be granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals.