As residents gathered Wednesday night to discuss the reuse of the Hawthorne-by-the-Sea Restaurant property, Swampscott Housing Authority Vice Chair Charlie Patsios told the Swampscott Tides prior to the meeting that he does not see the site as a fit for additional affordable housing units but instead a space like the old Clarke School.
Swampscott acquired the property in 2022 through a special Town Meeting vote, aiming to create a new downtown feature. The Hawthorne Re-use Advisory Committee has been meeting consistently to advise the Select Board on the future use and redevelopment of the land.
Several concepts for the property’s future have been proposed. The Hawthorne Reuse Advisory Committee agreed in May that the building on the property will need to be torn down. Other concepts on the configuration of green space, parking and other buildings are still being debated.
“I would look at this, and I would say, from my personal point of view with the ability to to look at this from an assessor’s evaluation…if I were to assess the highest and best use for the benefit of the town, I would want there to be a restaurant, a function facility and a hotel on that property,” Patsios told the Swampscott Tides. “That can pay us a real estate tax, a meals tax and a room tax, so the benefits of the town are financial and also are helping the town become more appealing.”
The Swampscott Housing Authority has a total of 120 units of elderly, handicap and family housing at Duncan Terrace, Doherty Circle and Margaret Kelly. However, the Housing Authority is forced to continually patch and paint these properties just to keep them marginally maintained.
While affordable housing is needed, Patsios believes the town would benefit more from using prime waterfront properties to attract visitors who will spend money, create memories and return.
At the same time, Patsios sees the economic developments throughout the town as almost a give and take. Other properties available for reuse, such as the Clarke School, could be earmarked for affordable housing, a recreation center, and a larger senior center.
“If we took a holistic approach – like the Housing Authority has been wanting to work with the Clarke School, the school department, the recreation department – you’d be able to say ‘look we can have something which is diversity here,’” Patsios said. “It’s not all or nothing.”
Patsios called the old Clarke School building “very sound” and in “excellent condition structurally.” The building ceased operating as an elementary school at the end of the 2023–24 school year, following the consolidation of the town’s three elementary schools into a single facility. The Clarke School is currently under the control of the School Department.
“It’s in the central part of town. It’s on a bus route. It has a playground nearby, adjacent to it,” Patsios said. “I believe that we can create something that is a mixed kind of housing where we can add public housing and we can add some affordable housing so that we can now truly address the needs in the town.”
The plan could include relocating the senior center to the Clarke School and adding space for early childhood education programs.
By creating affordable housing at the Clarke School location, it’d also allow Swampscott to “take our first step off of the state system and into the federal system” for funding, according to Patsios. Currently, the town doesn’t qualify for Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reimbursements because of “our buildings are so deficient,” Patsios said.
“If we could take the Clarke School… we would then become HUD housing. Our reimbursements would go from $600 to $2,100 and change,” Patsios said. “That surplus allows us to redo the (current affordable housing) buildings, get that up to grade, get the reimbursement for it and then go back…If we don’t change anything, we’ll be begging forever.”
