Norwich ― By this coming fall, there could be a locally owned restaurant open in the former racquetball court, and retail space, offices and apartments under construction, as Mattern Construction Inc. works to erase remnants of the long-closed former YMCA on Main Street.

The Norwich Planning Commission unanimously approved Tuesday the Baltic company’s plan to transform the blighted building across from the new Hotel Callista at a key downtown gateway into a mixed-use commercial and residential development. The plan includes eight one-bedroom market-rate apartments, space for a restaurant, three 1,200-square-foot retail spaces and office space for Mattern to move its headquarters into the building.

The building has two stories on the Main Street side and rear lower level.

A portion of the existing building that housed the small pool room is being demolished as part of an environmental cleanup. Rear parking will occupy part of the space in the lower-level rear. Mattern plans to extend the second floor, as seen from Main Street to create a rectangle building. Eight apartments, four on the second floor and four on the third floor, will be built above an open, covered lower-level parking area for the tenants.

In front, an elevated concrete patio will allow for outdoor dining and canopied entrances for the proposed retail areas. The new left front corner of the building will be dominated by large glass panels in full view of drivers entering Main Street.

“This project is of significant importance to the continuing revitalization of downtown Norwich,” company President Eric Mattern told the planning commission Tuesday, “and will be the first of many that will bring new life to Main Street and beyond.”

The former large pool room will be made weather tight and left alone for now, allowing Mattern to market the space for pool use or alternate use in the future, project architect Matt Byrnes-Jacobsen said.

Mattern said the restaurant should be completed first by fall of 2024, with the apartments completed soon afterward and the three commercial spaces “completely leased” by fall of 2025.

“That’s wonderful,” planning commission member James Quarto said. “It’s a long time coming.”

Hale Mill, Reid & Hughes building projects

The former YMCA project was one of three projects on Tuesday’s agenda that could fit Quarto’s comment. The commission also voted unanimously to approve modifications to a hotel under construction at the granite former Hale Mill at 140 Yantic Road in Yantic. The changes to the plans approved in 2018 removed a planned tennis court and made drainage and grading improvements to the parking area and sidewalks to avoid wetland areas.

The commission also unanimously approved a plan by Heritage Housing, Inc. to renovate the long-vacant former Reid & Hughes building into 17 apartments and one or two street-front commercial spaces.

David McCarthy, president of Heritage Housing, said his company bought the building in August 2022 after the previous developer, the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development, went into bankruptcy. Heritage Housing owns the Wauregan Apartments across the street.

Heritage asked the commission to approve its new plan and to vote to officially expire the Women’s Institute’s previous plan for 20 apartments for veterans’ housing in the building. McCarthy said the new plan is for apartments prices with a cap at 80% of area median income.

The commercial space will be 2,000 square feet, either as one unit or to be split into two spaces.

The building has challenges, McCarthy said, especially because it comes with no land beyond the building footprint. While there is no requirement for parking in the city urban center, he said the Wauregan garage should have five to 10 spaces that could be rented to Reid & Hughes tenants, and Heritage has approached the owner of an adjacent private parking lot about renting additional spaces.

The basement level is in a floodplain, so instead of creating recreation space there for tenants, McCarthy proposed allowing tenants to share the recreational amenities at the Wauregan. He proposed placing a bicycle rack, required for projects with four or more apartments, inside the building in a small corner.

The only landscaping will be narrow flower boxes along the front façade on Main Street, with a design to be approved later by the city planning staff.

c.bessette@theday.com