Former Newbury College / Welltower Site Development

Last updated 8/11/2022 -

The former Newbury College campus, located in the Fisher Hill neighborhood, was sold to Welltower, a leading developer of senior housing facilities. Following a successful zoning change, Welltower is redeveloping the eastern portion of the former Newbury College campus into a continuing care facility that would include independent living units, assisted living units, and memory care units for seniors. 

The Town also purchased the western portion of the site from Welltower. The Town has not yet identified what the property might be used for, but the Newbury Zoning Committee considered a 3- or 4-section school, a recreational facility, a storage facility for the Building Department, a training facility for the Police Department, and other uses identified in the Town's Strategic Asset Plan. The Newbury Zoning Committee produced a recommendation on a rezoning proposal for the eastern portion of the site together with associated agreements between the Town and Welltower. The zoning and other Town Meeting approvals were successfully passed and the continuing care facility is currently under active construction.

The Select Board anticipates creating a committee to recommend uses for the municipally-owned property on the west side of Fisher Hill Avenue in Fall 2022. Related background materials are on the bottom right of this page. The property is currently being used by the Public Buildings Division for a variety of workshop spaces that support all municipal and school properties. The Information Technology Department is also using a small portion of one of the buildings for storage and staging of leased computers and other equipment between lease cycles, for all municipal and school employees. Both of these uses were historically located within public school buildings.