Northeastern University (NU) has decided to sell the St. Botolph Apartments, a building for the low-income elderly and disabled at 351-367 Massachusetts Ave. The residences will remain affordably priced after the sale.
John Tobin, NU’s vice president of city and community affairs, told the Gazette that the property has not yet been listed, but that such action is “imminent.”
The sale is considered part of NU’s new dorm project on a different site on Huntington Avenue.
“We’ve said all along that once we’re done with this [dorm project], then the St. Botolph building will go on the market,” Tobin said. “We are just waiting for the [YMCA] situation to be wrapped up.”
The units must remain affordable until 2022 at the earliest, Tobin said, because of federally-subsidized Section 8 housing restrictions that mandate it.
NU bought the building five years ago, Tobin said, drawing criticism of NU’s expansion.
“I know people here [at NU] have said we should not have bought that building,” he said.