It’s been 12 years since the Turtle Lane Playhouse in Auburndale closed its doors. Multiple readers have asked us what’s going there.

The answers: Housing and commercial units and no one knows when.

Developer Stephen Vona later bought the property with a plan to turn it into a mixed-use development with housing units, commercial space and a new theater. The project was reduced in size a couple of times over the next several years, with the expectation that housing and a new theater would be built.

That never happened.

After years of pushback from neighbors and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2023 the city imposed a work stoppage order after the residential building was deemed structurally unsafe.

The developer was accused of doing some of the work without permits and continuing work after previous work stoppage orders had been ignored.

Now, the property at 283 Melrose St. sits partially built, full of potential, but completely empty.

According to one city official who spoke on background, the city sought legal remedy and the Middlesex Superior Court last year put the property into receivership.

The city is still working with the developer and the receiver appointed by the court to get the project built.