On June 30, the former Inn and Conference Center will get a new lease on life.
That’s when the state will remove the downtown Lowell landmark’s migrant and homeless family shelter yoke.
Previously, the ICC served as a combination dormitory for UMass Lowell students and a hotel/function center for the public. But the administration of Gov. Maura Healey requisitioned the 250-room hotel for use as an emergency shelter for homeless and migrant families in December 2023.
The state signed a $4 million deal to lease the ICC from the university through 2024 and subsequently exercised an option to extend the lease through December 2025, an option exercised again through June 2026.
At its peak, the emergency assistance shelter housed more than 700 individuals, consisting of 80% Haitian migrants, 10% U.S. citizens and a small population of Venezuelan migrants. The Haitian and Venezuelan migrants came to this country under Temporary Protected Status during the Biden administration.
By February 2025, the administration of President Donald Trump had revoked TPS for most migrants. In March 2025, the number of families at the ICC had decreased to less than 400. In July of that year, the ICC transitioned from migrant housing to a rapid track shelter and clinical safety risk site for homeless families.
The current dashboard of the Commonwealth Shelter System, which tracks the number of families enrolled, shows roughly 51 to 200 people remain at the shelter.
Several ideas for the future use of the building, which was built in1984, have been discussed, including transforming the facility into space for Middlesex Community College’s culinary and hospitality programs.
In an email to the newspaper last week, David Joyner, UMass Lowell executive director of communications and digital media said, “the university continues to work with our partners in the city and at the UMass Building Authority to determine next steps once the lease expires.”
Although the city doesn’t own the building, in October of last year Assistant City Manager Shawn Machado said discussions were taking place to determine the future development of the property, as well as the surrounding neighborhood.
“While no formal plans have been announced regarding the long-term use of the property beyond the current contract period, the city has expressed interest in remaining an active stakeholder in any future planning discussions,” he said. “Given the building’s strategic downtown location, its future use presents opportunities to support economic development, housing, or institutional needs.”
It’s imperative that the stakeholders involved in determining the ICC’s fate understand the site’s history and its ties to the community.
Once a standalone hotel that provided accommodations for visitors to the city and Wang Labs employees attending classes at the company’s training center – now the anchor building of Middlesex Community College’s Lowell campus — it became state property upon its purchase by UMass Lowell in 2009.
That transaction included 320 deeded parking spaces in the adjacent city-owned Lower Locks Parking Garage.
In the years since, the ICC has welcomed parents of university students — through their initial orientation to graduation.
It also became the destination for musical acts performing at the annual Lowell Folk Festival, which was lost when the state turned the ICC into a shelter, forcing the Folk Fest to incur significant transportation and logistical costs that impacted its bottom line.
The Healey administration floated another future use of site — housing — about a year ago.
The newspaper reported at the time that state officials planned to meet with Lowell City Manager Tom Golden and his leadership team to discuss that topic and economic development potential in the city.
While well known, the state’s significant housing deficit doesn’t mean that every surplus piece of state property should be used for that purpose.
Lowell has bucked that lack of housing production by attracting considerable housing development in the last several months, which should free up the ICC for a more imaginative use of that property.
Which brings us back to MCC’s proposal to use the ICC for the college’s culinary arts and hospitality programs, but also to potentially house students in a dormitory setting.
Back in October 2023, amid rumors of turning the ICC into an emergency shelter, numerous state and local leaders, including MCC President Phil Sisson, petitioned the Healey administration and UML to collaborate with community stakeholders to work toward an outcome that benefits the migrant families, the ICC, the city and its residents.
Sisson, who previously had said he wanted Middlesex to be the first community college in Massachusetts to offer residential opportunities to potential students, had also asked Provost and Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs Arlene Rodriguez to begin researching how MCC could become the first community college to offer residential life.
We urge the state to seriously consider President Sission’s novel vision for that prime parcel of downtown real estate.
And perhaps MCC could free up a few rooms for public accommodations.
That would take us back full circle.