By Hailey Heinz

In a city with limited available real estate, Northeastern is looking to expand its footprint by purchasing existing buildings. The university is eyeing several community facilities, including St. Ann University Parish, property on Hemenway Street and YMCA buildings.

The Archdiocese of Boston has placed St. Ann University Parish on the market, and Northeastern is one of the interested parties, although no bid has been made at this time, said Larry Mucciolo, senior vice president for administration and finance .

“We have very limited resources, so we look very carefully at multi-million dollar acquisitions,” Mucciolo said.

The site has both advantages and difficulties. It is appealing because there is an undeveloped parking lot next to it, and it is also adjacent to Light Hall, a university building. For these reasons, the acquisition of St. Ann would give the university a sizable piece of land to work with and would allow for expansions, Mucciolo said.

Despite the advantages for Northeastern, Mucciolo said there are issues with other groups who would like to see the property developed differently. One of these groups is the Fenway Community Development Corp. (Fenway CDC), a non-profit development organization in the Fenway area. If the Fenway CDC purchases the property, the group plans to build housing for low-income Boston residents, said Fenway CDC Director of Housing Kristin Saccoccio.

“It would be condominiums. We’re looking at 70 percent being market rate condominiums and 30 percent being affordable,” Saccoccio said.

She defined “affordable” housing as housing targeted at residents who make less than 80 percent of the median area income.

Saccoccio said the Fenway CDC’s plans would benefit Boston residents more than Northeastern would if it purchased the property.

“I think we’re putting together a proposal that is in line with what the community is looking for on the site. They’re looking for more home ownership in the area and they’re looking for affordability,” Saccoccio said.

It has not yet been determined what Northeastern would do with the property if it were purchased, although some ideas are being considered. Mucciolo said for the foreseeable future, the building would remain intact, and might be used as a spiritual venue, since many Northeastern students were parishioners when St. Ann was operational. Mucciolo said the building might also lend itself to use for student performances and recitals, and might be open to use by community organizations outside the university.

Although these possibilities are being considered, any long-term plans would have to be considered by the Community Task Force as part of the university’s Institutional Master Plan. If purchased, the property would probably be used as a meeting area until more definite plans could be made for it, said Northeastern spokesman Fred McGrail.

McGrail said the property is an ideal choice for Northeastern because of its close location.

“It’s a contiguous property to the university … there’s a limited amount of property that kind of fits that profile,” McGrail said. “That makes it desirable in that sense, in that it fits in with the existing footprint.”

A few other properties that fit this “footprint” are also being considered. Last Friday, Northeastern notified Community Task Force members of its intention to sign a purchase agreement for 109 Hemenway St., a building adjacent to Smith and Kennedy Halls, said Jeff Doggett, associate director of community affairs. Doggett said nothing has been finalized, and Northeastern still has to work out a price and other details of the potential purchase.

If it were purchased by the university, it might still have to be licensed and rezoned, depending on what the university decided to use it for. Like other developments, use of the property would have to be determined by the Community Task Force as part of the Institutional Master Plan.

“We don’t own it, we won’t own it for awhile, but we intend to sit down and talk about it,” Doggett said.

Northeastern has also submitted a bid for some YMCA facilities. Although the outcome of the bidding is not yet known, Mucciolo said it is doubtful that Northeastern will end up purchasing the property, because the YMCA’s offer to sell a part of its building assumed it would lease back the space it now uses for its offices and programs.

At this point, nothing has been finalized on any of these three properties, and all potential purchases are in different stages. Bids on St. Ann are due in the first week of April, and that bidding process will determine the fate of the property. Although the Fenway CDC is making a serious bid, Saccoccio said the organization knows Northeastern has more buying power.

“Our proposal puts together a good purchase offer to the Archdiocese [of Boston]. I think we have a very good proposal, but we certainly don’t have the deep pockets Northeastern has,” Saccoccio said.

Despite those deep pockets, Mucciolo said there is no guarantee Northeastern will get the property if it does decide to bid, and currently the university is facing many other housing issues that make St. Ann a less crucial issue.

“Right now, what we have is a piece of property that we haven’t bid on,” Mucciolo said.