Developers change their plans for housing on church site
By Dave Demerjian
The Boston Globe, August 27, 2006

The Jamaica Plain Development Corporation has changed its plans to demolish the rectory at Blessed Sacrament Church on Centre Street and instead hopes to move the building and convert it to condos for first-time homebuyers.

That's one change in plans for the site, which the Boston Archdiocese sold to the Jamaica Plain group last December. An earlier plan to demolish the 112-year-old rectory and replace it with a mixed-use building was opposed by the Boston Landmarks Commission and the preservation group Historic Hyde Square.

"I didn't expect the development team to take this road," said Historic Hyde Square's Rik Ahlberg of the relocation plan. "They seem set on putting a new building at the corner of Centre and Creighton, but a restored rectory would be a much better anchor."

Lizbeth Heyer of the development corporation said technical complications leave no choice but to relocate the rectory. "We need to move it in order to construct the parking garage," she said, adding that a new building on the corner would attract retailers to the site.

Developers originally planned six to eight affordable condominiums on the overall site, but the new plan calls for 16, a number that could grow to 20 with additional city and state funding. Heyer said about 70 percent of the development's 118 total units – a mix of condominiums, co-ops, and single-room occupancy units – will now be affordable.

To subsidize the relocation, which could cost $500,000, underground parking has been cut by 26 spaces and surface spaces increased by eight, to 103. "It does impact the amount of green space we have, " she admitted.

The Boston Landmarks Commission will hold a joint review with the Boston Civic Design Commission September 19.