In One of Massachusetts’ Most Latino Cities, a Former Factory Becomes 148 Affordable Apartments

LAWRENCE, Mass. — Marriner Mills has sat vacant for more than a decade, a brick shell on the edge of this city’s historic Arlington neighborhood, a former residential and industrial district that many residents still know by its old name: Polar Tech. Juana Matías, who grew up in Lawrence after her family immigrated from the Dominican Republic, said the building once employed many Latino immigrants, including her father, who worked there for 20 years.

Now Matías returns to the same building in a different role. In April, Governor Maura Healey named her Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities, making her the first Latina to hold the position. Months later, the building where her father worked is being converted into affordable housing — one of several projects across the state that the administration points to as it tries to translate its housing agenda into finished units.

“Coming here today brings me back to my roots,” Matías said during a recent visit to the site with Lawrence Community Works (LCW), the nonprofit developer leading the project alongside The Community Builders. “Many immigrants, many Latino immigrants, were able to get jobs here, were able to earn a living to achieve what would be the American Dream.”

Lawrence’s population is 77% Latino, and residents most commonly identify their ancestry as Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Central American, making it one of the most heavily Latino cities in the state. That population growth has consistently outpaced housing production, a mismatch documented in the city’s own comprehensive housing studies going back over a decade, leaving many families in overcrowded apartments and paying rents beyond what they can afford. 

LCW plans to convert the former factory into 148 income-restricted apartments, part of a mixed-use development that will also include commercial space and daycare. It is a project a decade in the making, and one that will not open its doors to tenants for at least two more years.

“We bought the building about 10 years ago, and it was with the support of the state and the city of Lawrence,” LCW Executive Director Jessica Andors said. “It’s a project that’s going to cost more than $100 million to develop in total, and we have private funds, state funds, city funds. It’s a mix, because you can’t do a project like this without that.”

Part of that mix includes historic tax credits, and Andors credited state Representative Frank Moran, who represents the 17th Essex District, with helping secure them. The credits are designed to draw private capital into projects that preserve a building’s original architecture rather than demolish it, and LCW intends to keep the structure’s historic form intact as it converts the interior into apartments.

The project is backed by around $30 million in combined federal and state tax credits and subsidies, according to state officials, including tools such as the Momentum Fund and Commonwealth Builder, programs the administration has used across Massachusetts to support affordable development.

Rep. Moran pointed to a housing study commissioned roughly 12 years ago that found the city was short by 15,000 units relative to the population it needed to house.

“That means we don’t have enough units for all the people we have in the city,” Moran said.

Census figures put Lawrence’s population at around 86,000, though Moran said local officials believe the real number is higher, noting that many residents don’t complete the census. Without enough units to meet demand, he said, rents keep climbing — a dynamic he has watched play out in overcrowded apartments across the city.

“We see people living two, three families in a single apartment,” Moran said. “For me, that’s not healthy for an entire family, especially if they have young children.” 

The 148 units planned for the Marriner Mills sit in what Moran described as the poorest section of Lawrence, making the project, in his view, a priority not just for the city but for the broader region.

Matías tied the project to a wider set of figures her office has cited since she took over the department in the spring: since Governor Healey took office in 2023, the administration says it has helped create nearly 450 housing units in Lawrence. 

“This is the number one priority for this administration — lowering the cost of living, lowering the cost of rent, and making sure people can keep living in Massachusetts and calling it home,” Matías said.

Eligibility for the apartments will be based on the area median income (AMI). Matías said households must earn no more than 60% of the local AMI to qualify. The 148 units will serve different income levels, including 37 apartments reserved for households earning 30% or less of AMI, targeting extremely low-income residents.

The Marriner Mills redevelopment will include more than housing. LCW said plans for commercial space and daycare came from conversations with Lawrence residents and local officials who wanted a development that would create a vibrant neighborhood, not just apartments.

“Everyone told us that we do want apartments, but not only apartments, because we want a neighborhood that is healthy, that has life,” Andors said. “So when we started the project, we had in mind that, okay, we have to have apartments, but also commercial spaces for community services, for small community businesses, to serve the community and add to community life.”

Arleen Zorrilla directs the organization’s Asset Building department, which runs financial coaching, first-time homebuyer classes, and a matched-savings program aimed at helping residents build wealth rather than simply access housing.

For renters who fall behind on payments, the department offers what Zorrilla called rental counseling, connecting tenants with resources to catch up before they lose their housing — support she said is paired deliberately with financial education. 

“It’s not just that I’m giving you the fish,” she said. “I’m teaching you how to fish.”

Zorrilla said LCW intends to connect future Marriner Mills tenants to those same programs before construction even wraps up, so residents arrive with a head start rather than starting from scratch once they move in.

Moran, whose own family history in Lawrence mirrors much of what Matías described, said projects like the Marriner Mills redevelopment need sustained state support if cities like Lawrence are going to close a housing gap measured in the thousands of units. 

“We have to keep supporting these projects across the state, and especially in this district,” he said.

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