Despite entreaties for more time from some residents of the 28-unit Stephen Palmer apartment building, the Select Board at its Oct. 14 meeting voted in favor of a tenant relocation program that would require the tenants to vacate their apartments by the end of October 2026.
This would be six months before May 3, 2027, when the town regains control of the converted school building at the corner of May and Pickering streets 50 years after it was first leased to a property management company.
The tenant relocation program includes both money and relocation assistance for the tenants, the vast majority of whom are seniors. They almost assuredly will be paying much higher rents wherever they move.
There are 20 one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom units in the 37,000-square-foot complex on a 1.5-acre lot. Rents range from $826 to $1,430 per month and average just under $1,100 — less than half of the town’s market rate, even though the building is not legally classified as affordable housing.
“This is going to be a challenging transition. We recognize that,” said Town Manager Katie King.
“The town does not yet know the future use of the building,” she added, noting the committee formed to evaluate possible future uses wouldn’t be holding its first meeting until the following day.
“The town may or may not know in May of 2027 what the determined future use of the site will be,” King said.
“There would be no time to support a thoughtful transition if we waited for the planning process to conclude.”
King said the move out date was dictated partly by the existing leases. Oct. 31, 2026, was the latest date that any tenant lease extended to.
“We wanted to line everyone else up so that some people weren’t asked to leave sooner than others,” she said. “It also allows for time for the transition that the town is going to have to make once it’s fully vacant to prepare for taking the building back.”
The town estimates it will cost $385,000 to support the tenants. In an Oct. 10 memo to the Select Board, King noted “the actual cost of the agreement will be determined by when units become vacant, and the total may end up being higher or lower than this estimate.”
Funding the agreement will require Town Meeting to approve a $385,000 reserve fund transfer when it meets Oct. 20.
The Select Board also plans to seek a future Reserve Fund transfer to support the tenants in their relocation efforts and costs. According to the memo, the funds will “allow the Town to reimburse up to $10,000 per Stephen Palmer unit for eligible relocation costs including: the rent differential between their future and current rent for up to 4 months, security deposit, moving costs, and application fees. This program will operate on a reimbursement basis and is capped at $10,000 per unit at the Stephen Palmer Building for eligible costs.”
Town as reluctant landlord
The former elementary school, built in 1914, was converted to housing in 1977 when the town entered into a 50-year “ground lease” with Stephen Palmer Associates, an entity of the property management firm Crowninshield.
Crowninshield converted the school to 28 rental units, a use that will end by May 2027 when Crowninshield fulfills its contractual obligation to “peaceably surrender” the property to the town “in good order, condition and repair.”
The rub lies in what Crowninshield is not contractually required to do, according to King’s Oct. 10 memo. “It does not require that (Crowninshield) return a vacant building to the Town,” King wrote.
With Crowninshield having no obligation to clear the currently fully occupied building of its tenants, that job would default to the town should it inherit the role of a landlord, a position town officials have expressed no interest in assuming.
The town’s planning to date, done with the assistance of a relocation consultant and in Select Board executive sessions, has been dedicated to developing a tenant relocation plan that ensures the building is free of tenants prior to May 3, 2027.
It is described as “an agreement between the Town of Needham and Stephen Palmer Associates/Crowninshield to responsibly wind down the existing residential use of the property” ahead of the May 2027 transfer.
To the 28 tenants, a responsible “wind down” is a euphemism for a premature eviction. Three tenants who spoke during the meeting’s public comment session spoke of their expectation that they had until May 2027 to relocate. They expressed bewilderment at why there is any need to advance that timeline by six months.
In addition to speaking during the public comment segment at the outset of the Select Board meeting, Stephen Palmer resident Judith McIntyre interrupted the Select Board’s discussion of the issue, clearly agitated that she had heard no compelling reason for the earlier than expected move out.
“What’s being discussed here is not what we’re asking right now,” she said. “Just give us those six months. That’s all we’re asking. We’re not asking for an extension.”
Avoidable or inevitable?
Among the Select Board, only member Josh Levy opposed the tenant relocation plan. Reading from a prepared statement, Levy offered a proposal that would have the potential to extend the use of Stephen Palmer for housing beyond the May 3, 2027, expiration of the ground lease.
He recommended the town “issue a request for proposals seeking parties interested in providing management services or entering into a new ground lease for the Stephen Palmer apartments and to whom residential leases would be assigned at the conclusion of the current agreement.”
While his four board colleagues all expressed sympathy for the tenants, they defended the relocation plan with the argument that the town should not be a residential landlord. They believe it is necessary to commit to a new plan for the 111-year-old complex, which could involve a renovation or a demolition and rebuild.
The Board’s senior member, Marianne Cooley, spoke of the inevitability of the decision and of the many times the building had been considered for alternative uses, such as when it was in the running as a possible site for a new senior center.
“We’ve always chosen, on an interim basis, to walk away from that because, in fact, it would be too difficult to have people leave their homes,” she said.
“We knew, when we got to the end, that we were going to have people leave their homes. And we are at this difficult point now.”
“This is a nut we have to crack,” added member Kevin Keane.
“To do otherwise is to stick our heads in the sand,” member Heidi Frail said.
“This is a moment that we had to come to at some point,” said member Cathy Dowd. “And this (the relocation plan) provides clarity and notice and support for a difficult transition.”
The plan now moves on to Special Town Meeting, which will consider two different warrant articles that need to pass for the plan to go forward. The first article would appropriate the $385,000 to fund the relocation plan.
Should that pass, Town Meeting would then need to amend the town’s FY26 budget for a transfer from the town’s Reserve Fund to the Town Manager’s office.
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