Town's New Seasonal Workforce Dorm Going Up On Waitt Drive

Island residents may have spotted a large green building sprouting up behind the Nantucket Public Safety Facility off Fairgrounds Road over the month of January. No, it's not an expansion of the Green Lady Dispensary next door.

The building is the town's new seasonal workforce dormitory that is being constructed to house seasonal municipal workers - primarily lifeguards - and is located on Waitt Drive. The two-story, 10,000-square-foot building is comprised of modular units that were designed to accommodate roughly 50 occupants, with four different configurations.

The total project budget for the workforce dormitory is $11.7 million. The bulk of the funding was approved at the May 2022 Annual Town Meeting, when voters endorsed $8.5 million in borrowing for the construction, a sum which was later endorsed as a ballot question.

When complete, the dormitory will include 17 double or triple occupancy rooms, one two-bedroom apartment, a one-bedroom apartment, and an "accessible room."

During the summer season, the dormitory will primarily be used for the town's lifeguards. In the offseason, "we will use it for transient housing, emergency town employee housing and in some cases for contractors when visiting the island," the town's municipal housing director Kristie Ferrantella told the Current.

Asked to clarify the term "transient housing," Ferrantella said. "It’s for remote employees that come to the island for a few days or weeks out of the month."

The design-builder for the project is J & J Contractors, of North Billerica, Mass., and The Vertex Companies LLC, of Weymouth, Mass., has served as the town's project manager.

Substantial completion of the project is expected by April.