The site of the former Union Hospital in Lynn is being transformed into affordable housing for seniors with on-site health care.

The $85 million project, slated to be complete in late 2027, will feature 150 apartments for seniors who have low incomes.

“A hundred-and-fifty units of affordable housing is a huge win,” said Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson. “We have a housing crisis, and we feel that acutely here in the city of Lynn. Our residents can’t afford to live here. And that’s a particular problem for seniors.”

The mayor pointed to a 2021 report that found more than 42% of Lynn households paid 30% or more of their income for housing. Of those, half paid more than 50%. The report, by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, also found that the city only had a quarter of the deed-restricted affordable housing units needed for eligible local households.

Currently, there are nearly 11,000 people on the waitlist for 530 elderly/disabled public housing units in Lynn, according to Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development.

An architect’s rendering of the planned Solimine House affordable housing complex for seniors in Lynn. (Courtesy: Model of Architecture Serving Society)

The units in the building under construction, mostly one-bedrooms, will be available to tenants 62 and older whose households earn no more than 60% of the area median income. Some apartments are dedicated to households earning only up to 30% of the median. State rental-assistance vouchers will subsidize more than 100 of the units. The remainder of the apartments will have fixed, below-market rents.

The project is being funded with the help of federal and state tax credits, state and city loans and private donations.

The hospital, which was owned by Mass General Brigham, closed in 2020. Local businessman, real estate developer and philanthropist David Solimine, Jr., a Lynn native, purchased the property and razed the buildings.

A local study and public meetings had found residents wanted to see senior housing on the site. Solimine chose the nonprofit 2Life Communities as developer and donated five acres of land for the project.

Magnolia Contreras and David Solimine, Jr. at the construction site of Solimine House in Lynn. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

“It was a way for us to return the property back to the community,” Solimine said. “This has been a community property with the hospital for [nearly] 70 years, and for it not to continue to be a community property didn’t seem right.”

Separate from the affordable housing, to be named Solimine House, Solimine developed 26 single-family-home-style condominiums for people 55 and older on 10 acres of the land that had been a hospital overflow parking lot.

The new development includes an already-opened day center and health clinic named for Solimine’s wife, Magnolia Contreras, who works in healthcare and has been one of the leaders of the project.

The design plan calls for a covered walkway from the apartment building to the health center so residents can easily get there for appointments with doctors, counselors and physical therapists. Nurses and home health aides from the center will visit seniors in their apartments for blood pressure checks and other services.

Element Care PACE, a nonprofit healthcare organization that operates federally funded medical care and social services for adults 55 and older on the North Shore, is partnering with 2Life Communities to run the health facility.

Construction under way on Solimine House in Lynn. The senior affordable housing building is flanked by the Magnolia Contreras Day Center, where tenants will be able to access health care, and a Mass General Brigham urgent care facility. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

There’s also a Mass General Brigham urgent care medical facility next door to the apartment building, which MGB opened in 2020 when it was closing the hospital.

Lizbeth Heyer, president of 2Life Communities, said the organization’s comprehensive approach to combined housing, community programming and health care for seniors helps delay the onset of dementia and reduce incidence of diabetes and heart disease.

“We are expanding people’s age span, but also their health span,” Heyer said. “Because the goal is to live in community as long as possible and to live a dignified life.”

Heyer said she expects to receive 1,500 to 2,000 applications for the 150 apartments. Lynn residents will receive preference, and tenants will be selected through a lottery.