ATHOL – Town Manager Shaun Suhoski is optimistic of the year ahead for Athol, with several projects that will positively impact the community getting underway in the months ahead.

“What we’re going to see short-term – January or February – is the actual real estate closing for Ellen Bigelow/Riverbend to NewVue Communities,” he said. “I think we’ll see a building permit issued in the first quarter of 2025, and I think we’ll see construction beginning by the end of quarter one or early quarter two.”

Suhoski explained that after six years of laying the groundwork, the transformation of the former Riverbend and Bigelow schools into affordable/senior housing will begin in earnest.

“That’s a $32 million project,” he said. “Over the past six years, NewVue, step by tedious step, has compiled the subsidies and funding and tax credits required for that project, and now we’re on the cusp of it. It’s something that was a vision; it was talked about in the 2016 report that I did for the Selectboard on how to dispose of those school buildings and potentially renovate them into family housing and senior housing.”

The project will transform the school buildings into 33 units of mixed-income family housing, while the construction of a building connecting the two structures will include 20 units of senior housing and community space. Representatives of NewVue recently told the Selectboard the project should be completed by mid-2026.

“The whole package,” said Suhoski, “goes from a liability – vacant buildings owned by the town – to a tax-paying entity.”

Parking garage renovation

In late summer of 2022, Fitchburg developer Bill Krikorian approached the Economic Development and Industrial Corporation to express interest in purchasing the property now occupied by the long-closed municipal parking garage and constructing an affordable housing development on the site.

The proposal has received the backing of Suhoski and other town officials, boards, and committees, which see the development as a major advance in the revitalization of downtown Athol. EDIC Chair Keith McGuirk recently said that he hopes to announce the closing on the sale of the property – which is currently owned by the corporation – to Krikorian. Once the closing is complete, Krikorian will be able to put together financing for the development.

That, Suhoski explained, would move property from municipal ownership to the tax rolls. The project represents an investment of approximately $13 million.

“It would be the single largest building constructed in downtown since the Town Hall in 1922. It will provide (43 units of) housing for a range of incomes; commercial space on the first floor and new, modern units of housing.”

Other projects

Another project coming to fruition after nearly eight years of planning and discussion, said Suhoski, is reconstruction of what is known locally as the Five Points – the intersection of Chestnut Hill Avenue, Crescent Street, as well as Lee, Laurel, Brattle streets. The project, estimated at $8.5 million, will be done by the Mass Department of Transportation and funded through the state. The town’s Capital Planning Program has provided approximately $600,000 for design and engineering on the project.

“Route 32 winds through there and all of those retaining walls are in pretty sad shape,” he added. “It’s time to clean up that area. The intersection and the grade of the roads will be adjusted for safety.”

The greening of Lord Pond Plaza will also get underway in 2025. That project has been in the development and engineering stages since the state’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program was introduced to Athol residents and officials in 2019. A study that followed identified the plaza as a major heat island in the center of Athol. As a result, a plan has been developed to reduce the size of the shopping area’s parking lot through the creation of substantial areas of green space and to daylight Mill Brook, which currently runs beneath the parking lot.

“We’re going to be going out to bid at the end of January, beginning of February for that project,” Suhoski said. “It will be done in two phases. In the first year, we’ll be doing all the prep work to get that going; we’ve got to get the bids in first. The whole thing should be completed sometime in late 2026. We have a $3 million Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant. It’s a program the Planning Department and DPW have been worked on for five or six years.

“The Five Points project, Ellen Bigelow/Riverbend, the parking deck project, Lord Pond Plaza, each and every one of them is a major project and we’re doing four of them in 2025 and 2026. We also hope to have delivery of the new ambulance before the end of the fiscal year. And we signed a contract at the end of 2024 for a $1.5 million public safety radio system upgrade. So, looking ahead, I’m pretty excited about 2025.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.