Cardinal Cushing Building
Cardinal Cushing Centers has been approved to construct a brand new 20,000 square foot sustainable Marketplace Building. The new building will house the café, gift shop, and thrift store as well as provide state of the art classrooms and office space for students and employees. Additionally, the building will now be visible and directly accessible from Route 53 and provide a more open integration with the Hanover community and residents. The Building Department has released a permit for construction and the project is currently underway.
Project Updates
February 20, 2020
Cardinal Cushing Centers, a South Shore nonprofit organization that supports people with intellectual disabilities, is constructing a new MarketPlace building. The MarketPlace will provide job training to Cushing students, job opportunities to adults with disabilities, and a shopping destination for people of all abilities. With this new MarketPlace, people with intellectual disabilities will no longer be isolated from the broader community and will become an integral part of a neighborhood.
Construction of a 20,000 square foot, environmentally friendly building to house the organization’s employment training program, including six state-of-the-art classrooms and three retail shops, is well underway and expected to reach completion this summer. An integral piece of Cushing’s mission is to help people with disabilities by removing barriers to integration into their communities. They also aim to provide plentiful opportunities for meaningful employment. The MarketPlace plays an important role in fulfilling their vision for an inclusive community, while also allowing Cushing to enhance and expand their job training program for students and adults. Estimated to cost $10 million, they have raised $9.87.
The MarketPlace will be visible and accessible directly from Route 53. Greater visibility and accessibility will increase the number of customers served. Job training will be enhanced so students are better prepared to obtain paying jobs and find success in the workplace.
In addition to the MarketPlace, Cushing recently partnered with the Planning Office for Urban Affairs and the Town of Hanover to transform one of their under-utilized buildings into 37 units of workforce housing, now known as the Bethany Apartments.
Cushing’s overall vision that they have been working to enact since 2015, is to create a truly integrated neighborhood where people with and without disabilities live, learn, shop, and socialize together in the same space.