PORTSMOUTH — Cynthia Koniecki said she was moved to tears when she saw the first signs of construction on 54 units of affordable housing and a new senior center.

Speaking at last week’s groundbreaking ceremony, she motioned to the new concrete tower at 110 Bristol Ferry Road. “When they first built that structure, I came around the corner and started crying. Now, who cries over an elevator shaft? But that’s how real it was to me,” said Koniecki, the executive director of the Portsmouth Multi-Purpose Senior Center.

It’s been a long journey to get work started on the development — five years in fact.

“I don’t think the team that worked on this ever lost sight of the vision of what was going to happen, but I also don’t think any one of us knew how hard it was going to be to get here,” said Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr., who led a team of local and state partners along with Christian Belden, executive director of Church Community Housing Corporation, which has a lease agreement with the town and is developing the property.

The project entails building the Ade Bethune House, which will add 54 units of affordable senior housing, along with a new and modern senior center that will shared among its current members and residents of the Ade Bethune. The project has been a controversial one at times, but the senior center leadership has supported the venture. 

The project, Rainer said, is essentially addressing two major problems in one stroke.

“This journey began several years ago when we realized the original senior center was going to require millions of dollars in funding just to meet code requirements, not even to mention refurbishments that would be required to give seniors the senior center that they deserve. As a community we came together to find sustainable and forward-thinking solution that would not only provide a new home for our senior center but would also provide affordable housing for seniors,” Rainer told dozens of dignitaries and residents who gathered under a tent set up near the site on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

Unlike the current senior center, which is housed in the former Anne Hutchinson School, the new one will be modern and built with the specific needs of seniors in mind. “It will be better than what they have now,” Rainer said. “We’re breaking ground on a development that will serve our community for generations to come.”

Rainer credited CCHC, all the other nonprofits and partners that worked on the project, along with the town’s local legislative delegation and Town Council members Kevin Aguiar and Keith Hamilton for their dedication in making the development come to life.

“Today does mark a significant milestone for the Town of Portsmouth,” the administrator said. “This project is the result of tremendous collective effort driven by a vision to ensure that our seniors have a safe, accessible and welcoming place to gather and communicate with each other. We’re also addressing a need for affordable housing.”

‘Win-win-win’ situation

Belden said the project first got off the ground five years ago when Rainer and then-Council Vice President Linda Ujifusa (now a state senator) asked for a tour of CCHC properties. At the same time, they told him the town’s senior center “was in rough shape and closing because of fire code violations,” and that the town also needed more affordable housing. 

“Pretty quickly we realized there was this synergy, that many of the spaces that existed in the senior center were spaces we typically build in any one of our senior housing developments — a library, a game room, a lounge, a multi-purpose space, a kitchen,” Belden said.

Renovating the senior center, which has never been on the town’s tax rolls, would have cost the town millions of dollars, Belden said. “Now, the town is getting a brand-new senior center that is actually designed as a senior center from the start, as opposed to a school building that was retrofit to work as a senior center, and the town will receive an excess of $90,000 per year in property tax revenue as a result of this development,” said Belden, calling it a “win-win-win situation.”

He credited all the stakeholders involved, including the council-appointed Senior Center Advisory Group, which counts Konieki, Ujifusa and others as members. “Their input was really invaluable in coming up with a floor plan that would allow us to deliver a senior center that met the needs of the town,” Belden said.

Also speaking was Gov. Daniel McKee. “This project is another example of the momentum that we have in Rhode Island, particularly in the housing that we need to add to the inventory,” he said. “You can’t get this done without local partnerships. I look forward to come back for the ribbon-cutting.”

Tone has changed

James Comer, deputy director of Rhode Island Housing, one of the partners, said the tone around affordable housing in Rhode Island is definitely changing. 

“After nearly 30 years of doing this work, I’m getting welcomed into town halls that I used to get thrown out of, and that is never more true than here in Portsmouth,” Comer said. “When we talk about affordable housing, it’s not just bricks and mortar, it’s not just apartments or community spaces, it’s in fact a community. In its best iteration it’s a community that provides support, services, and is a welcoming place for its residents and for the larger community as a whole. This will be a resource not only for the residents of Ade Bethune, but also for the larger community.”

Rainer agreed.

“To our seniors, I want you to know that this new center is more than just a building. It represents our commitment to you and the valuable role you provide in our community. This facility will provide space for you to connect, share, and continue to build meaningful memories together,” he said.