AFTER three years, which saw hundreds of migrant and homeless families come through its doors, the former Inn & Conference Center is closing June 30.

The Sun stopped at the complex Thursday, hoping to grab some exit interviews with any remaining residents. But instead of children playing in the courtyard, or the smell of food wafting the halls, the vast lobby was eerily quiet.

A housekeeping cart sat idle in an adjacent wing, a couple sat at a table in a room off the main floor watching soccer on their phones, and a “free” table displayed toys, books and random tchotchkes, perhaps discarded by families who had already left the shelter.

A staff member said up to five families had been moving out per day, but that only a few were still left.

“They’ll all be out by June 30,” he said. He did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The closing is the result of a winding down of an almost three-year emergency housing program in the commonwealth. In August 2023, Gov. Maura Healey stood at the podium in a State House briefing room to declare a state of emergency on the migrant housing and services crisis.

Previously, the ICC served as a combination dorm space for UMass Lowell students and a hotel for the public. But the 250-room hotel was repurposed to serve as an emergency shelter for homeless and migrant families in December 2023.

At its peak, more than 700 individuals were staying at the emergency assistance shelter. Overall, the family demographic at the ICC was 80% Haitian migrants, 10% U.S. citizens and a small population of Venezuelan migrants. The Haitian and Venezuelan migrants were legally admitted to the country under Temporary Protected Status during the Biden administration.

The Trump administration took a harder line on immigration, and by February 2025, it had revoked TPS for most migrants. That new immigration reality was reflected in the household numbers at the ICC. By March 2025, the number of families had dropped to less than 400. By July, the ICC transitioned from migrant housing to a rapid track shelter and clinical safety risk site for homeless families, housing less than 200 families.

Now, even they will be gone.

What happens now will be the next big story.

The Frontrunner City Initiative is focusing on the Jackson/Appleton/Middlesex area of Lowell, leaving this section of downtown the opportunity to again reinvent itself.

— Melanie Gilbert

The city took ownership of the property from the state, and has been working to make a development deal.

It’s not clear where that process stands, but the site is showing signs of neglect and strain. The grass is knee high in the front, and although all the doors remain secure, numerous windows had been smashed.

The chain-link fencing has been knocked down in several areas, and mini encampments suggest that homeless people have been squatting in some of the exterior spaces.

Based on the number of orange caps to syringes littering the grounds, it’s obviously a hangout for illicit drug use, too.

Having the vacant District Courthouse on Hurd Street and a vacant ICC on Warren Street, just spitting distance from one another, could act like a force multiplier for random acts of either destruction or development.

Let’s hope a rumored deal to develop at least one of the properties is in motion, and that area of the city will rise again.

— Melanie Gilbert

OVER IN the Back Central neighborhood, just days after the vacant Superior Courthouse sold for $1.925 million at auction, the chain-link fences were clearly being bypassed and it looked as if people were accessing the formerly secure grounds.

A walk of that perimeter showed recent evidence of habitation, including clothes, food, nip bottles and other trash.

The sooner the sale of that property is finalized, the better, as it represents an important gateway to the city.

— Melanie Gilbert

A LITTLE more than two short years ago, the No. 1 issue in the town of Billerica was the proposed project to overhaul the Town Center.

Remember that saga? For a good while it was the main story, right up until the moment it wasn’t, after voters rejected the $20 million proposal in a special election — which was a whole saga of its own to make that election happen.

A lot of opinions were thrown around during all that, but one that was seldom raised was that the town did not need to renovate the Town Center at all. The cost and extent of the project was where the debate centered for the most part, but it seemed even then that there was a general acknowledgment that the center needed some changes.

Two years, and a whole different political environment in Billerica and beyond, and that acknowledgment seems to have persisted at least among town officials. The Select Board heard an update Monday on new plans for the Town Center, which this time are projected to cost much less, to the tune of about $5 million.

The project this time does include some elements of the proposal rejected in 2024, like new protected crosswalks, a left turn from River Street to Boston Road, changes in lane configurations and pedestrian signaling.

After the Select Board heard an update on the project from Public Works Director Fred Russell, who sought the board’s blessing to use Chapter 90 money to make up a $351,000 funding shortfall, the board appeared generally supportive of the project.

Board member Daniel Darris-O’Connor, who was not on the board at the time of the last project proposal, said driving in the center currently “feels like it gets worse.”

“I know there is work that has to be done there… We want to be able to use it as an area of economic opportunity for our town, and hopefully improve that area overall for safety purposes, economic development, all of the above,” said Darris-O’Connor.

Board member Michael Rosa, who was on the board at the time and had been an opponent of the last proposal, seemed to support this latest proposal, and said he would support using Chapter 90 funds to cover the shortfall.

Board member Dina Favreau was also not in her current seat when the Town Center project went to a vote in 2024, but she was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Select Board at the time to force a special election after the board had initially rejected the petition. She and Rosa noted how the project should mesh well with an adjacent MassWorks project taking place on Boston Road.

“I appreciate you looking and finding additional resources in order to do the decorative lighting so we have continuity going down Boston Road,” said Favreau.

Board member Jillian Pavidis and Chair Michael Riley did not speak much on the topic, with Riley only saying to Russell that it “looks good,” so unless we have a Lowell High School situation on our hands and the price balloons well beyond $5 million, the board appears poised to give possibly unanimous approval of the project.

Russell noted that the intent is for the project to go out to bid this coming winter, presumably after it gets a vote at the fall Town Meeting, and then for work to begin in the spring. One can’t help but be hopeful that this time around the debate does not devolve into the toxicity that was unleashed the last two times a major Town Center project was proposed. A disagreement over a roadway project is hardly worth a big battle.

— Peter Currier

DRACUT’S ZONING Bylaw Review Committee has voted on what it will recommend to the Board of Selectmen to comply with the state’s MBTA Communities Act. Selectmen will then need to review it and place it on the warrant for a Town Meeting to approve, most likely in November.

The decision came after a public forum on June 12. Some 50 residents attended the meeting at Harmony Hall.

As they and other town officials have done over the past two years, the ZBRC had to fend off questions about immediate housing development and developers buying condo complexes identified in the recommended scenario to meet housing density requirements.

“We chose condominium sites because they would be very unlikely to be sold,” ZBRC Chair Josh Taylor said.

Once again, the board patiently explained that the MBTA Communities Act is a zoning law, not a housing law. It does not call for immediate development of housing. It would establish multifamily housing by-right on the identified parcels. Meaning if the land specified by the town becomes available for development, it would not require variances for construction. There is no requirement in the law to build housing.

Both parcels of land are home to condominium communities. To develop these properties to build as multifamily housing would require the consent of 90% to 100% of the unit owners, an unlikely eventuality.

The ZBRC has been working for at least two years to respond to this state mandate. Two Town Meetings have rejected the original plan, Since the last attempt, the plan has been revised.

The sites selected are on Tennis Plaza Road, Winding Brook Condominiums, and Route 113, Cascade Condominiums.

Winding Brook has been in the news lately for pyrrhotite contamination of the foundations in one of its buildings.

Winding Board Condo Association President Scott DeRosa assured the audience that a developer would not get 260 condo owners to sell their individual units.

At one point during the meeting, one resident, perhaps hoping for a united front, stood to ask, “What about the other towns standing strong against this?” He learned that the number standing strong — about a dozen in the beginning — is diminishing. Nearby Tewksbury is one of those towns and, just a few days after the Dracut meeting, that town’s Select and Planning boards agreed on a plan to submit to their Town Meeting.

Dracut and Tewksbury have both put state grants in jeopardy except for reimbursement for under Chapter 70 mandates school building projects, like new schools would still be funded.

— Prudence Brighton

AFTER GIVING his final speech in the House Wednesday night, state Rep. Rodney Elliott of Lowell said he plans to resign once scheduled formal sessions conclude at the end of July.

Elliott, a Democrat representing the 16th Middlesex District, is taking a job as finance director with the Collegiate Charter School in Lowell starting July 1, as previously reported by The Sun. Elliott said he plans to submit his resignation letter on July 1 and conclude his tenure as a lawmaker on Aug. 1, the day after scheduled formal sessions are set to end.

“As I mentioned last night, it’s been an amazing experience,” Elliott said, referencing his speech during Wednesday’s formal House session. “I started my career almost to the day 44 years ago as a young, eager legislative aide. And to me, all these years later, I still have the same feeling of being part of the democratic process and eager to serve the people of the city of Lowell.”

Earlier this year, Sen. Vanna Howard defeated Elliott in the special Democratic primary to fill the vacant seat held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Elliott was first elected to the House in 2022 and had announced he would not seek reelection this year. Before coming to the State House, Elliott was on the Lowell City Council for 24 years and served as the city’s mayor from 2014 to 2016.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, two Democrats are vying for Elliott’s House seat: Lorena Betts and Corey Michael Robinson. Karla Miller is listed as the sole Republican primary candidate for the district that also encompasses parts of Lowell and Chelmsford.

— Katie Castellani, State House News Service