Plans filed to convert large Fenway rooming house into affordable apartments - some set aside for its current residents

Two non-profit groups have filed plans to convert and modernize a six-story lodging house at 20 Charlesgate West in the Fenway into an 86-unit apartment building, with all the units renting at "affordable" rates below what the city normally considers "affordable."

Some 22 of the units will be "enhanced" single-room occupancy units, rented at very low rates, with on-site support for their residents, according to plans submitted to the Boston Planning Department by the Planning Office for Urban Affairs - the Archdiocese of Boston's housing wing - and the Fenway Community Development Corp., The two organizations bought the building from the Catholic order that had owned it in 2023, in part with funds from the city.

Five units in the new building will be set aside for current long-term residents of the building, which has been under Catholic ownership since the 1940s. Residents won those permanent set-asides as part of a settlement of a suit in which they alleged the Connecticut-based order that was running the building, known as Our Lady's Guild House, was kicking them out to make way for women college students.

The plans also call for 45 studio apartments and 19 one-bedroom apartments. Some 40 of the non-SRO units will be rented to people making no more than 60% of the Boston area median income, with another 19 rented to people making no more than 30% of that median income. The remaining five will be rented to long-term residents at rates well below market rates.

Unit sizes will range from roughly 343 square feet for the SRO units and 441 square feet for studios to 541 square feet for the one-bedroom units.

In addition to converting interior space into apartments and community rooms, including kitchen and laundry space, the plans call for replacement of the building's current electrical, heating, fire-alarm and air-conditioning systems and windows to make the building more energy efficient and bring it up to code. Elevators will be repaired, the roof replaced and the lobby made handicap accessible. Aside from the windows and roof, no changes to the building's exterior are planned.

No parking is planned for the building, which is a short walk from the Kenmore and Hynes Green Line stops as well as several bus lines. Indoor storage for 86 bicycles will be added.

20 Charlesgate West filings and meeting/comments schedule.