Newton Eyes National Guard Armory To Use For Affordable Housing

NEWTON, MA — The city will be looking into turning the castle-like National Guard Armory building on Washington Street into affordable housing units. On Tuesday, the mayor announced the city will be exploring a purchase of the land and building for $1 from the state.

She said the building has sat empty for quite some time, and the state recently came to her to see if the city would be interested in acquiring the 33,000 square foot property - under the condition they use it for affordable housing.

"The only way they'll give it to us for $1 is if it's 100 percent affordable housing," Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller told Patch. "The goal is to preserve the building and use it for affordable housing."

Fuller said between knowing how desperate the need is in Newton for affordable housing, and making sure the city controls the future of that property, she has high hopes for the project.

"We take advantage of community preservation act, community development block grants and home housing partnership funding to support affordable housing. We're continuing to do that quite aggressively," she said. "It's a wonderful confluence of things coming together," she said.

City council still needs to approve the "purchase," so it's too early to tell just how many units would fit on the property near the edge of West Newton Square and next to Trader Joe's.

The units would be reserved for people who make 80 percent of the area medium income or lower, according to the mayor.

The building at 1137 Washington St was most recently used as a recruiting office for the US Army National Guard. In years past, recreational volleyball teams would have their games inside.

Lynn is in the process of transforming an armory it into affordable housing, and that appears to be going successfully, and that bodes well for Newton, said the mayor.

The 2010 census had Newton at 32,648 housing units, although the city website puts housing in the city at 31,975 currently. The anticipated total for 2030 for large multi-families with more than 50 units under construction in 2018, include the Austin Street development with 68 and Washington Place with 140.

Last year Northland Developers proposed 860 units in Newton Highlands and Riverside filed for permission for about 663 units earlier this year.

[CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story said there would be a vote on the purchase of the property. There will be no vote any time soon, according to the mayor's office, which noted the process isn't clear just yet].

Related:

Newton Commits To Increase Housing As Part Of Area Coalition

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).