An extended-empty 112-year-old church within the coronary heart of Boston will quickly get new life as it’s changed into reasonably priced housing.
In Boston, one of the crucial costly cities within the nation with a median checklist worth of $800,000 for August, in line with Realtor.com® information, homeownership is out of attain for a lot of.
It isn’t any higher for renters. The median hire within the Latin Quarter neighborhood, the place the Blessed Sacrament church is situated, is $3,200 a month.
However the transformed church will supply rents at steep reductions (as but to be decided) for these incomes lower than the realm’s median earnings.
The redevelopment “provides critically wanted reasonably priced and mixed-income housing to the neighborhood whereas honoring the church’s historic structure,” mentioned Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in a press release.
The redevelopment is led by Pennrose, a “mission-driven” nationwide developer, and was funded by MassDevelopment, Residents Financial institution, and a number of public companies.
All 55 flats within the 71,000-square-foot historic constructing will probably be for these incomes lower than the realm’s median earnings (AMI), which is $115,800 for a one-person family and $132,350 for a two-person family, in line with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
There will probably be 27 models for these incomes 60% of AMI, 11 for these incomes 30%, 10 for these incomes 80%, and seven for these incomes 50%.
The house breakdown is 13 two-bedrooms, 25 one-bedrooms, and 17 studio models. As well as, there is a 200-person neighborhood area, which is able to characteristic “occasions and performances centered round Afro-Latin arts and tradition,” in line with the nonprofit Hyde Sq. Activity Pressure, the constructing’s former proprietor.
There will probably be six models reserved for folks experiencing homelessness, however it’s unclear if that’s along with the 55 models, experiences Boston Actual Property Occasions. (Realtor.com reached out to Pennrose.)
The conversion is a part of the mayor’s promise so as to add 802 models of reasonably priced housing, with 160 of that for senior residents.
A former church sees new life as an house constructing
Blessed Sacrament at 361 Centre St. in Hyde Sq. was in-built 1913 and has been empty for 20 years.
The conversion is taken into account a win-win for the town: Residents will get extra reasonably priced housing, and the church will probably be saved from additional deterioration. Many of the exterior and the historic facade of the five-story church will probably be preserved.
The Hyde Sq. Activity Pressure acquired the property in 2014, aspiring to protect the construction. Property data present that the nonprofit bought the church in July 2025 to Pennrose for $3.1 million.
“Redevelopment is critical to avoid wasting the Boston Landmarks-designated construction, because the constructing has been vacant and largely unused for twenty years,” states the nonprofit’s web site.
Realtor.com reached out to Hyde Sq. Activity Pressure.
“Positioned in a transit-oriented, resource-rich neighborhood, the Blessed Sacrament redevelopment will enhance entry to high-quality housing in one of many nation’s most costly cities,” mentioned Karmen Cheung, regional vice chairman of Pennrose, in a press release.
The developer can also be behind The Pryde, the town’s first LGBTQ-affirming flats for seniors 62 and older. The Pryde was transformed from a 120-year-old college.
Funding got here from MassDevelopment, the state’s improvement finance company and land financial institution, which issued a $37,630,000 tax-exempt bond, and from federal low-income housing tax credit (led by the Massachusetts Govt Workplace of Housing and Livable Communities), which is projected to supply $32.8 million in fairness.
Changing church buildings into houses
Church buildings, lots of that are deserted as attendance has dwindled nationwide, can typically be snapped up for below-market costs.
In a metropolis like Boston, which has not solely a critical housing crunch but in addition a plethora of previous church buildings, the buildings may be the right inventive resolution to extra housing mixed with historic preservation.
Different comparable conversions within the space embrace Sacred Coronary heart Church rectory and faculty in East Cambridge, Hill Memorial Baptist Church on North Harvard Avenue in Allston, and St. Aidan’s Church in Brookline, in line with CBS Information.
Additionally, the previous St. Augustine’s Convent at 207 E St. in South Boston is being changed into 35 models of reasonably priced senior housing.
Nation star Zach Bryan even snapped up the Saint Jean Baptiste Church in Lowell, MA, to show right into a neighborhood arts heart honoring considered one of his heroes: Beat Era novelist and poet Jack Kerouac.
However because of many components, previous buildings like church buildings, which can have landmark standing, pose huge challenges to transform into livable areas.
“Blessed Sacrament is an particularly sophisticated undertaking as a result of challenges of rehabilitating and adapting a 100+ year-old construction that has been vacant for over twenty years,” the developer mentioned on its web site.
“Repurposing the constructing would require a excessive degree of structural and environmental work to deal with a number of points together with harm to the masonry, roof, and construction,” it continued.
Boston-based architect DiMella Shaffer heads up design. The agency’s web site says that a big neighborhood area will probably be carved out of the primary nave, and the cupola will probably be made right into a residents’ widespread space.
The constructing may also be fossil fuel-free as befits the state’s clear power and local weather plan.
“We hope the approval of Blessed Sacrament as reasonably priced housing establishes a brand new customary for comparable historic buildings,” it mentioned.
