PORTSMOUTH — For years, they heard the accusations, endured the political battles and watched signs pop up around town demanding that Portsmouth save its senior center.

On Wednesday morning, Oct. 21, Christian Belden and Richard Rainer Jr. finally got to deliver their answer.

It stood around them at 112 Bristol Ferry Road: a $26 million development featuring 54 modern, affordable apartments for older residents and a brand-new Portsmouth Senior Center, complete with spacious gathering areas, a library and sweeping views of Narragansett Bay.

And this time, instead of defending their plans, they were celebrating the finished product.

The grand opening of Ade Bethune House and the Portsmouth Senior Center drew a packed crowd of elected officials, housing advocates, community members and supporters who applauded the project and later toured the building.

For Belden, executive director of Church Community Housing Corporation (CCHC), the occasion was particularly satisfying.

At the project’s groundbreaking, he recalled, he deliberately held back from responding to some of the accusations that had dogged the development.

He wanted to wait until the building was finished to make sure it turned out the way he hoped.

“Portsmouth, it has,” he declared Wednesday.

What followed was part celebration, part history lesson and part rebuttal to critics who, Belden said, had spread misinformation about the project from its earliest stages.

One persistent allegation was that the town would contribute $250,000 — or even $1.25 million — toward construction. Another was that the promised senior apartments were actually a “bait-and-switch” that would become Section 8 family housing.

Neither claim was true, Belden said.

The town did make a significant contribution — it provided the land through a 99-year ground lease — but made no direct financial contribution toward the development.

“Not $250,000, not $1,250,000. Zero dollars, correct?” Belden said, turning toward Rainer, Portsmouth’s town administrator.

The audience erupted in applause.

Rainer, who had championed the project from the beginning, was equally direct.

He recalled accusations that town officials didn’t believe senior lives mattered, and the blue signs that appeared throughout Portsmouth urging residents to “Save our s

enior center.”

“Well, let me say that unequivocally: They do, and we did,” Rainer said, drawing another round of applause.

A better solution

The controversy began with a problem few disputed: The former senior center, housed in the aging Anne Hutchinson School next door, was deteriorating and facing significant fire code and safety issues. Renovating the building would have cost the town millions.

Then-town councilor Linda Ujifusa, now a state senator, introduced Rainer to Belden after hearing the nonprofit housing developer speak at a conference in March 2019.

Belden recognized that many of the amenities already offered by the senior center — a library, game room, fitness area, kitchen and multipurpose spaces — were commonly incorporated into affordable senior housing developments.

Why not combine the two?

The resulting partnership provided a new senior center and 54 one- and two-bedroom apartments for households headed by someone 55 or older, with income eligibility ranging from 30% to 80% of the area’s median income.

Unlike the former town-owned property, the new development will also generate tax revenue — more than $75,000 this year, according to Belden.

“We’ve created much-needed housing, provided our seniors with the facility they deserve, and we added taxable property to the tax base,” Rainer said. “And we accomplished all of this without asking taxpayers for one dime.”

He acknowledged the process had been difficult, particularly the anger and hostility surrounding the proposal. But he insisted he would do it all again.

“It was right then, it’s right now. It was the right thing to do — for Portsmouth, for our seniors, and for the future of our community.”

A long-awaited home

For Cynthia Koniecki, director of the Portsmouth Senior Center, Wednesday’s celebration represented the fulfillment of a dream she had nearly given up on.

“Twenty-five years ago, I asked the board, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a new senior center?’ And of course, the answer was, ‘Not in your lifetime,’” she recalled.

Koniecki joked that one board member recently suggested she must feel as though she’d given birth to the new building.

“Yeah, and I have the labor pains to prove it, but it was worth it,” she said.

She recalled how Portsmouth seniors first petitioned the town council in 1981 to convert the former Anne Hutchinson School into a gathering place. The facility served the community for more than four decades.

The new center, she said, represents much more than modern surroundings.

“It represents a promise that our seniors will always have a place where they can feel welcome, supported, and valued,” Koniecki said.

Belden, who has worked with Koniecki for nearly 20 years, said she was among those who personally motivated him to see the project through.

“I really thought that she deserved a new, beautiful senior center,” he said.

A look inside

Following the ribbon-cutting, attendees toured the new complex, with many expressing admiration for its design, spaciousness and amenities.

The senior center features welcoming gathering spaces and an attractive library, while the residential portion offers modern one- and two-bedroom apartments equipped with kitchens.

Visitors explored the upper floors, where third-floor windows offer impressive views of Narragansett Bay. Even the laundry rooms reflect modern conveniences, with an app-based system that notifies residents when their laundry is finished.

Outside, landscaped grounds include a gazebo, bocce court and places to enjoy the coastal setting.

The combination of affordable housing, attractive surroundings and a purpose-built senior center was precisely what Belden said CCHC had hoped to deliver.

“I believe we should build developments we would be happy to live next door to, not merely developments we are happy to have someone else next door to,” he said.

Legislators celebrate

Ujifusa, whose early involvement helped launch the partnership, presented Senate citations to Belden and Rainer, crediting them with doing the heavy lifting.

“They did the researching, the writing, the outreach, everything,” she said.

State Rep. Michelle McGaw called the project a “win-win solution” to two pressing community needs: an obsolete senior center and a shortage of affordable housing for longtime residents hoping to remain in Portsmouth. (Note: McGaw is the wife of this story’s author.)

She also thanked voters, who approved a ballot question supporting the development.

“This project required vision,” McGaw said. “It required out-of-the-box thinking, and it required a lot of hard work.”

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed placed the project within the larger housing crisis, noting that homelessness among seniors has increased sharply nationally and in Rhode Island.

“Ade Bethune House is the exact type of housing that we need,” he said.

Reed said federal investments totaling $22 million helped make the development and senior center possible.

Rhode Island Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard praised communities willing to embrace affordable housing, while representatives of Rhode Island Housing and several financial institutions highlighted the complex partnerships necessary to finance such developments.

According to Belden, the $26 million project required 12 funding sources from seven agencies and institutions.

Belden also singled out Behan Bros., the project’s general contractor, for its commitment to quality and cost savings. He said the company consistently looks for ways to save clients money, even when doing so reduces its own fee. “They do what they say they’re gonna do,” he said, adding that he had never encountered another contractor so willing to put its clients’ interests first. He also noted that pricing from another contractor for a separate development CCHC is pursuing nearby came in significantly higher than Behan Bros.’ estimate.

The development honors Ade Bethune (see related story), a founding board member of CCHC and an advocate for affordable housing who believed people living in poverty deserved dignity.

For Belden, the finished project also represents something less tangible: proof that cooperation and integrity can overcome distrust.

“Today, we can point to this building and say, here is what happens when people work together in good faith to deliver something of lasting value to their community,” he said.

Rainer offered a simpler assessment.

“We did the right thing, and looking at what stands here today, I’d say we did a pretty damn good job.”