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Charlie Adams
Regional vice president, Pennrose
Industry experience: 25 years
Pennrose is making a name for itself as a developer of creative housing models throughout the East Coast. In September, the Baker administration selected Pennrose to redevelop the 9-acre Soldiers Home property in Chelsea, replacing the roominghouse-style living quarters with single-room housing for veterans and larger mixed-income units, as well as increasing capacity from 150 to 248 units. Then in October, the nonprofit Hyde Square Task Force picked Pennrose to acquire the former Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain for a housing and community center redevelopment. Pennrose is also building on its experience developing the nation’s first LGBTQ-focused senior housing in its headquarters city of Philadelphia, in partnering with LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. of Boston on an upcoming redevelopment of Hyde Park’s former Rogers Middle School at 15 Everett St. into 75 housing units. In recent years, the company has developed more than 300 housing units across Massachusetts, including conversions of former school buildings.
Q: How successful was the 2015 launch of Pennrose’s original LGBTQ-focused community in Philadelphia and how has that property guided your approach to future projects?
A: It was tremendously successful and it’s a mix of folks that identify as LGBTQ and people who don’t. It’s really about people who are welcoming and accepting of the LGBTQ community. About 70 to 80 percent identify as LGBTQ. That’s pretty consistent through the projects that are done throughout the country. They are independent senior living units and the emphasis is really on making sure that our staff is culturally competent. One of the things we found, particularly with our experience at John C. Anderson Apartments, is that it’s become such a robust community, more so than other places. The community feels connected and does a lot of things together, so community spaces became really important. The outdoor garden became important and the residents themselves take ownership.
Q: Why was Pennrose’s proposal for the Hyde Square church property able to win the selection process?
A: The Hyde Square Task Force wanted to find a way to work with a group that would preserve it, and they ultimately entered in a partnership with us that would allow them to continue to part of the ownership structure going forward including having some dedicated performance and multi-use space that they would be the operator of within the building. It allows another asset to be preserved that might otherwise have to be torn down. It creates performance and multi-use space for the Hyde Square Task Force and the community at large and provides affordable and workforce opportunities.
Q: What’s the next step in the project?
A: We’ve been going through the community engagement process, and the emphasis really is on some deeper affordability. We’ve got a total of 50 units. The current plan, subject to continued discussions, is to have 32 units be tax-credit eligible and 20 would be workforce housing up to 120 percent of area median income. The architect is DiMella Shaffer, and they worked with us on the Rogers School project and two school [housing conversions] in Auburn.
Q: What do you foresee for the future of Pennrose’s New England development pipeline?
A: The LGBTQ model is the thing we’d like to move forward on and like to do in Connecticut, and we do a lot of work with historic assets and there are a lot of opportunities. We haven’t been able to identify that partner [for LGBTQ projects] in New Haven or Connecticut, so it would be great to find a partner to help us move that along.
Adams’ Five Favorite Movies
- The Paper
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Shawshank Redemption
- Stand By Me
- Places in the Heart
Pennrose was selected by the nonprofit Hyde Square Task Force in October to redevelop the former Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain as a mixed-income housing development. Image courtesy of DiMella Shaffer
