🔒Waterbury officials tap familiar developer to remake former St. Mary’s School into 80 apartments
Joseph Gramando is a New York-based developer who has been involved in three large-scale downtown Waterbury redevelopments over the past decade. He is planning to convert a shuttered Catholic school in the heart of the city into housing for healthcare workers.
A developer with deep experience in Waterbury is in line to buy the shuttered St. Mary’s Grammar School for $1.6 million, with plans to transform the site into 80 apartments for medical workers.
Mayor Paul Pernerewski’s administration has opted to sell the former Catholic school next to St. Mary’s Hospital on the eastern edge of the city’s downtown to KayBar Development Corp. for $1.6 million. The proposal still requires approval from the city’s Board of Aldermen.
A public hearing is expected Aug. 11.
KayBar is the development vehicle of Joseph Gramando, a New York-based developer who has been involved in three large-scale downtown Waterbury redevelopments over the past decade under the banner of Green Hub Development.
The Catholic primary school closed in 2018, a victim of declining enrollment. The city bought the school’s 2.2-acre property for $1 million in 2023, in order to control its future. KayBar was one of four respondents to a request for proposals the city issued last fall seeking a development partner.
The former St. Mary Grammar School campus at 55 Cole St. In Waterbury. MICHAEL PUFFER
That search sought out developers interested in tapping state grant funding that was established to support construction of affordable housing for medical workers.
The former school property at 55 Cole St. and 320 East Main St. includes four brick classroom buildings ranging from 7,875 square feet to 15,525 square feet, and dating back between 1936 and 1945. There is also an unheated, 1,400-square-foot brick storage building.
Gramando previously partnered with his longtime friend and influential financier, Louis Forster, in Green Hub Development, an investment vehicle used to tackle some of the most ambitious redevelopment efforts in downtown Waterbury over the past decade.
Green Hub’s latest project, completed in December, transformed a decrepit and long-vacant, six-story office building into office and classroom space. The University of Connecticut is its largest tenant.
Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski on Friday said Green Hub’s track record of quality redevelopment was an important factor in its selection as the preferred developer of the St. Mary’s school property.
“They just deliver what they say they are going to deliver,” Pernerewski said. “I expect them to do the same with this project. I’m looking forward to another quality project.”
At St. Mary’s, Gramando plans to convert the existing classroom buildings into 40 apartments. A new, 40-unit apartment building will also be erected. The site will include upgraded landscaping, security and amenities, including a new playground.
The type of affordable units will depend on the size of the state subsidy. KayBar, in its RFP response, outlined three possibilities including:
A $16 million state grant paired with $3 million to $5 million in private investment would yield apartments offered at “workforce” affordable rates.
A $10 million state grant paired with $8 million to $10 million in private investment would yield 70% workforce housing, with 30% offered at market rates.
A $6 million state grant partnered with $12 million to $14 million in private investment would yield 40 units offered at workforce rates and 40 at market rates.
KayBar has been working with the Department of Housing to prepare an application for the state’s $20 million healthcare workforce housing development assistance pool, according to a memo Waterbury Finance Director Michael LeBlanc shared with aldermen. KayBar expects to submit its application in August, according to LeBlanc.
