Our 1 Lowell Avenue building – next door to our primary building – will open in two phases and will add several new specialty labs across physics, woodshop, arts, and maker space uses! The first phase is now slated for open in January 2025 and the second phase will – hopefully – be Fall 2026! Thanks to an incredible anonymous Acera family gift of $3,000,000 we were able to buy the building outright and cover the costs of redefined Phase 1 construction without acquiring any new debt!
Our redefined Phase 1 project includes infrastructure upgrades (aka a new roof, plumbing, etc.) and configuration of a woodshop classroom, restrooms, and rough-in of additional space. Shortly before school restarted, Winchester’s Building Commissioner re-issued a Building Permit.
Why was this delayed? Initially, the Building Commissioner and Town had approved our Phase 1 plan to build out 4 lab spaces this summer; though clearly marked as a flood zone, Winchester Building Commissioner changed his mind and unexpectedly suspended our permit. Read the July 18th newsletter to see why things were paused this summer.
We now envision a move over from the Inno Lab to the 1 Lowell Woodshop classroom space during December break. Concurrently, this will open up the new ability to use the vacated part of the Innovation Lab space for theatre performances during the second half of the school year.
We will then move forward with costing out a new budget to build the rest of 1 Lowell, into the physics, fiber and visual arts, music and recording studio, and maker space labs we envision. We will launch a capital campaign based upon the additional funds we will need to finish 1 Lowell. We anticipate a building permit for the woodshop in December 2024. One year after that permit is issued, we will be allowed to submit for another building permit. As long as the total renovation project costs are less than 50% of the market value of the property, we will **not be required to raise the building by 2 feet and we will be able to move forward with our plan. We anticipate this phase 2 will include the current Karate studio tenant space.
Below is a blueprint of what we anticipate for 1 Lowell once phase 2 is complete! Starting in January, the parts that will be available will be the woodshop and the restrooms. After Phase 2 is complete, and the Maker Space is moved to 1 Lowell, we will be able to convert the entire large space in the back (currently our Innovation Lab) into a theatre and gross motor movement space! If you want more information about this please email Trent at trent@aceraschool.org!
