State and town officials and community leaders Monday launched the $1.2 million renovation of the old firehouse at 66 Willow Street. By the fall, the old building, which has been the Acord Food Pantry, will also have four affordable housing units.

The renovation by the non-profit Harborlight Community Partners also ensures that the building can not be sold for development as a commercial project.

“I have worried for 20 years about what would happen to the food pantry when this building gets sold,” said Ann Marie Cullen, co-President of Acord Food Pantry.

Now that will not happen.

Instead Harborlight, which was asked to look at the project three years ago, has redesigned the old firehouse to use one bay for the food pantry with a new side entrance. The other bay on the first floor will be converted into an apartment for an elderly or disabled resident. Three one-bedroom apartments will be built on the second floor. The footprint of the building will not be changed.

Called Firehouse Place, the building will have its exterior altered as well. It will be redesigned to have a gable end facing Railroad Avenue and a refreshed facade on Willow Street. The current double garage doors will be removed.

There will also be four parking spaces for the building – three rented from the Black Cow parking lot and one on the street.

“This building has a lot of karma to it,” said state Rep. Brad Hill. The firehouse was used by community leaders in the past to serve the community. “Now the building is offering housing to those who need it,” he said.

Funding for the renovations comes from 13 different public agencies and private contributors. The town of Hamilton contributed $180,000 from its Community Preservation Act funds, which Selectman Dave Carey called “a good deal” for the town.

Instead of $75,000 per unit, which most towns pay for affordable housing, Hamilton is getting the four units for $35,000 each, Carey said.

Other contributors include the North Shore HOME Consortium, First Baptist Church of Beverly, the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corp., Boston Community Capital, Beverly Cooperative Bank, North Shore United Way and the Beverly National Bank/DanversBank.

Construction began immediately after the ceremony. Martins Construction Co., owned by Wenham Selectmen Chairman Molly Martins, is the contractor. The architects are Siemasko and Verbridge.

Projections were that the project will take 20 weeks to complete, but Martins said she believes it can be done in 12 weeks, finished “hopefully” by Labor Day.

The project will be completed faster, she said, because Hamilton with the help of the Boy Scouts moved the food pantry temporarily to the Council on Aging offices at the old library.

The idea of using the building for affordable housing came from Jared Ward, a member of the First Congregational Church.

“As a lifelong resident of Hamilton and Wenham, I am pleased to have been able to see my original concept come to fruition through the hard work of so many people.” Ward said.

Hill and Suleski, president of Harborlight, gave much of the credit to Carey, who has worked to secure both town and state funding for the project. Carey, in turn, credited Harborlight Community Partners Executive Director Andrew DeFranza, who he said was probably still “in therapy” having pulled the project and its funding together.

Cullen agreed, saying DeFranza's enthusiasm for the project “never flagged.”

DeFranza said: “We were committed to making sure that Acord would remain as a community asset and to demonstrating that small scale, well designed affordable housing is possible on the North Shore.”

Hill said there are those who believe that in towns like Hamilton and Wenham few people need assistance. But if it were not for organizations like Acord, “a lot of mouths wouldn't be fed,” he said.

The Beverly-based Harborlight provides a wide range of housing primarily for low and moderate income residents of southern Essex County. It provides single, family and elder housing and assisted living in a variety of communities.