Photo courtesy of Google Maps

Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski is planning to ask city elected officials for approval to sell a former Catholic school to a developer active in the city.

New York-based KayBar Development Corp. would buy the former St. Mary’s School campus ant 55 Cole St. and 320 East Main St. from the city for $1.6 million, according to a purchase and sale agreement the mayor’s office filed for the Board of Aldermen’s approval at the body’s meeting Monday.

A public must still be held on the sale before it closes, per state law, likely later this summer.

A memo from city Director of Finance Michael LeBlanc details how the city came to own the two properties: by buying them for $1 million from a local church in 2023.

The school buildings, which sit next to Waterbury’s St. Mary’s Hospital, have been vacant since 2018.

KayBar was selected through a city RFP process that aims to generate housing for hospital workers, and LeBlanc’s memo notes that the financing package could include up to $20 million in state-issued bonds.

The developer has redeveloped three downtown properties for housing in recent years.

The company is planning 80 units on the site in an $18 million to $20 million project, although the exact mix of subsidized affordable housing versus market-rate units has yet to be determined. The project would involve renovating the campus’s four existing buildings into 40 apartments, and building a new structure with another 40 homes on the parking lot behind them. Amenities would include a playground and “a community amenity space.”