The former UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, leased by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the end of 2025, will apparently cease functioning as an emergency migrant shelter at the end of June.

InsideLowell has learned that involved parties were informed this morning that the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) and Commonwealth Care Alliance (CCA), the organization managing the facility for the state, have mutually agreed to close all CCA managed Emergency Assistance shelters as of June 30, 2025, including the ICC.

The parties were also informed that CCA’s focus over the coming months will be on placing families in those shelters in permanent housing and working closely with EOHLC to transfer families unable to find permanent housing before the June 30 closure date to other shelters sites if necessary.

A Boston Globe article in March reported that CCA is in “very deep financial trouble.”

There is, however, confusion on the part of legislative sources, city and even UMass Lowell officials about exactly what this morning’s news means.

Late last year, the state renewed it’s option to operate the ICC as an emergency shelter through the end of December. Depending on the source we’ve spoken to, they’re being told the state is looking for another company to replace CCA in operating the facility as a family shelter for other Massachusetts residents, or simply leaving the building all together and turning it back over to UMass Lowell.

While there is a lease in place through December 31, multiple sources tell us the state is able to exit that agreement without notice or any further financial obligation.

Another source close to the university tells InsideLowell the facility will be put up for sale before the end of the year, going through the proper bidding process.

Adding further intrigue to the building’s immediate and long-term future is the fact UMass Lowell is said to still owe roughly $16-million in debt on the property, in addition to operating costs once its turned back over to them.

People familiar with the property estimate another $11-million in renovation would be required to rehab the building toward its next use, speculated to be everything from affordable housing, market rate housing, a hotel and even a mixed use facility proposed by Middlesex Community College in September of 2023.