Shown above, Mayor Patrick Keefe addresses attendees at the ground breaking for the McKinley School revitalization project, surrounded by local and regional officials.
shovels.
Mayor Patrick Keefe and the City of Revere hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to officially mark the comprehensive restoration and rehabilitation of the former McKinley Elementary School on Friday, April 17. The project will creatively repurpose the currently-defunct building at 65 Yeamans Street into a dynamic, mixed-use space featuring the Metro North Regional Emergency Communications Center (MNRECC), in partnership with the City of Chelsea and Town of Winthrop, and a state-of-the-art early childhood education center to be operated by Revere Public Schools.
The redevelopment is a landmark preservation project for the City of Revere. By utilizing much of the existing structure, the city is honoring its architectural history while adaptively reusing the space to meet modern, critical community needs.
Keefe was joined at the groundbreaking by Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez, Winthrop Town Manager Tony Marino, State Senator Lydia Edwards, State Representative Jeffrey R. Turco, the District Director for Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, MNRECC Director Whitney Morgan, Revere Public Schools Superintendent Dianne Kelly, and project partners from PMA Consultants, Trac, CambridgeSeven, WSP, and GGD Consulting Engineers, Inc.
The revitalized McKinley School will be anchored by two major initiatives:
Metro North Regional Emergency Communications Center (MNRECC): A tier-one, state-of-the-art emergency dispatch center. Marking a historic collaboration between Revere, the City of Chelsea, and the Town of Winthrop, this new regional partnership will unlock vital state funding, centralize municipal costs, and expand emergency response capacity and efficiency across the Metro North region.
Early Childhood Education Center: A brand new educational facility that will add 210 new seats for Revere’s youngest learners, doubling the city’s current preschool enrollment capacity. This development provides a massive increase in affordable childcare options for working parents in Revere. The City extends its gratitude to State Representatives Jessica Giannino and Jeffrey R. Turco, as well as State Senator Lydia Edwards, for their partnership, including the securing of a $100,000 earmark to support this project.
“The revitalization of the McKinley School is a perfect example of what we can achieve through creative municipal planning and strong regional partnerships,” said Keefe. “Instead of losing a piece of Revere’s history, we are transforming it into a hub that will keep our residents safe and give our youngest learners the educational foundation they deserve. I am incredibly proud to break ground on a project that will benefit Revere, Chelsea, and Winthrop for generations to come.”
Marino and Maltez both spoke of the benefits the MNRECC will bring to their communities.?“This was a project that was on our list,” said Marino. “Our chiefs at the time came to me and said we needed a new community and we needed to get in a RECC center and this was on the radar even as far back as 2022. We were able to get across the finish line when Mayor Keefe got elected and Fidel came over from Reading.”
Keefe said the plan is for the entire development to be open some time in 2027, the 100th anniversary of the last major renovation of the McKinley School in 1927.
“This project has been a dream of our community for over a decade,” said Maltez.
Maltez said joining the MNRECC was a tremendous change for his community, requiring a collaborative effort between city leaders, the city council, and residents.
Turco noted that he was a student at the McKinley School, and was excited that the renovated building will once again be a centerpiece of the community, bringing together two of his biggest priorities – education and public safety.