Portsmouth's seniors are about to get two things at once: new affordable apartments and a new place to gather.
Church Community Housing Corp. will hold a ribbon cutting for Ade Bethune House and the Portsmouth Senior Center from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 112 Bristol Ferry Road, according to RIHousing's events calendar.
The development has 54 new affordable senior homes, with one and two bedrooms, affordable to households earning 30% to 80% of area median income, according to RIHousing.
Housing and a senior center under one roof
The project combines affordable senior housing and a new senior center in a single building. The housing is age-restricted to people at least 55 years old, according to a Community Development Block Grant application the Town of Portsmouth prepared in 2025.
That document lays out how it came together. The town partnered with Church Community Housing Corp., known as CCHC, on the redevelopment of the senior center, and CCHC secured the funding to build the new center along with the affordable housing. In September 2024, CCHC closed on its financing and construction began on the 54 apartments and the senior center, the application says. CCHC received environmental approval for the development from HUD in November 2023.
The need was pressing. The existing Portsmouth Senior Center was found to be in violation of numerous fire code regulations, and the Portsmouth fire marshal shuttered the historic Anne Hutchinson School, reducing the center's capacity and leaving it without enough space until a new center could be built, according to the application.
The plan uses a condominium arrangement. In the application, the town sought $1.25 million in CDBG money to buy a "Senior Center Condo" from the development's ownership entity once construction was complete. That condo includes the senior center offices, a thrift store, a warming kitchen and a fitness center. The town would then lease the space to the nonprofit Portsmouth Multi-Purpose Senior Center for $1 a year for 99 years.
The rest of the senior center space, including the game room, dining room, multipurpose room and library, would be available around the clock for residents, with the senior center managing programming for the entire space under a service agreement with Ade Bethune House LP, the application says. It estimated that 700 people would be served. Construction of the senior center was scheduled to finish in spring 2026, the application said, at which point the condominium would be legally created and sold by Ade Bethune House LP to the town.
CCHC, founded in 1969, began as a grassroots effort by local churches to improve housing conditions on Aquidneck Island, according to the application. Local churches donated the initial $20,000 in startup costs, later matched by federal funds, and the group has since developed nearly 1,000 units of affordable housing, including more than 600 rentals and more than 300 affordable homes for low- and moderate-income families, over 100 of them land trust properties.
The Portsmouth Multi-Purpose Senior Center was founded in 1981 as a nonprofit serving people 55 and older. Its services include exercise classes, health screenings, tax preparation, a walking club and an Alzheimer's support group.
Why it matters for Contractors
Ade Bethune House shows how a single building can serve two public purposes. Mixing 54 apartments with a senior center, a thrift store, a warming kitchen and a fitness center means a job with both residential and commercial-style spaces, each with its own layout, finish and code requirements.
The condominium approach also matters for builders. Carving out a separately owned condo within a larger building affects how spaces are separated, metered and secured. The application notes the fitness center and kitchen sit inside the condo area, which is locked after business hours, and the senior center will pay the condo's utility bills.
The project also shows how long these deals take. HUD's environmental approval came in November 2023, financing closed in September 2024 and the ribbon cutting is set for Oct. 21, 2026. Contractors interested in subsidized senior housing should expect multiyear timelines and layered funding, with pieces like the town's block grant request tied to specific spaces inside the building. No general contractor was named in the public documents reviewed for this story.