Lowell — At an informational session Nov. 10, Lowell Community Charter Public School presented plans for a new athletic and community center behind Mill Number 5 while consultants warned that a nearby 133-foot masonry smokestack on the site poses a nontrivial seismic risk to students and nearby sidewalks.

Nick Leonardos, executive director of the school, said the public school serves about 815 students and "we're about 96% of families and children of color," framing the project as a community investment. The design team from HMFH Architects described a pre-engineered metal gym building that would house a full-size basketball court with retractable bleachers for about 400 and provide an additional Middlesex Street entrance and upgrades to upper and lower play areas.

"We've been in this building for 25-plus years," Robert Kignac, chief operating officer, said, explaining the school's recent acquisition of Mill 5 and adjacent parcels and the team's decision to commission a feasibility study, a historic assessment and two structural reviews. Kignac said moving the gym behind Mill 5 eliminated the need for an overhead bridge and some retaining-wall costs.

Epsilon Associates provided historic context: the smokestack is part of the Appleton Manufacturing Complex and is included in the Locks and Canals National Register and the Downtown Lowell local historic district. The consultant identified other smokestacks in Lowell for comparison and summarized potential funding sources —community preservation funds (CPA), the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund and Preservation Massachusetts grants — but noted the typically small caps on preservation grants would not cover full repair or ongoing maintenance.

Structural engineer Mike Hughes of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger gave the study's technical summary and probability analysis. He described hands-on coring and borescope work, documented widespread outer-wythe deterioration and estimated that roughly 80% of the outer masonry requires repointing. He said the stack is an "unreinforced multi-wythe, 133 foot tall masonry smokestack" and that even after repointing the stack would not meet modern Massachusetts building-code seismic design levels. He reported that, based on bounding analyses for likely mortar strengths, "in the next 10 years there's about a 7.7 to 9.6 percent chance" that an earthquake of the magnitude that could cause failure would occur. Hughes added that lowering the stack or strengthening its base can change performance, but such interventions are costly and can shift rather than eliminate vulnerability.

The consultants provided an estimated immediate repair cost — roughly $455,000 to repoint and reset bricks — and an estimated ongoing maintenance/insurance burden of about $250,000. Epsilon and the school warned that grant programs mentioned in the presentation typically cap awards far below those figures and would not cover the full lifecycle cost.

Board members pressed for comparisons to other smokestacks in Lowell, options for partial preservation, and the possibility of a third-party peer review of the seismic work. One board member said the destruction of historic fabric is "a tough sell," while another emphasized the school's safety concern for 815 students and urged balancing preservation against risk. Staff confirmed the city does not have an in-house structural engineer and suggested a peer review funded by the project would be an available path.

The project team said the gym could be built without removing the smokestack but acknowledged the turbine building would need demolition as part of the site plan. The board did not take a formal vote on demolition or approval tonight; members asked the team to return with additional pedestrian-level renderings, peer-review options and more comparative data about how other local smokestacks have been treated.

Next steps: the school will work with city staff on design-review procedures, consider a peer review for the structural findings and return to the board for further informational review before any permit or demolition requests are decided.