Purchase and sale agreement signed for Chapin School
Date: 7/26/2013
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comCHICOPEE – The effort to convert the former Chapin School into housing for veterans is moving forward.
Mayor Michael Bissonnette told
Reminder Publications the purchase and sale agreement between the city and The O’Connell Companies, which is working with Soldier On, has been signed and the project has received $250,00 federal grant form the Department of Housing and Urban Development that will be used to fund the planning process further.
The project was announced last October and would convert the school building, which has been closed for more than a decade, into a housing complex for about 40 male veterans.
The residents would pay rent and the project would not be non-profit and generate taxers for the city.
Bissonnette said the project is “exciting” and wrote on his Facebook page, “This project makes for an excellent reuse of the property and will be a significant upgrade to the Rivers Park area.”
The next step he said would be to submit “a full package” of information to secure the funding for the project, which he added would include tax credits, loans and grants. The estimated coast for the conversion is $10 million.
“I’m optimistic for a successful application,” he said.
Bissonnette noted that statistics show that 100,000 homeless veterans using shelters every night.
