A long-vacant church at the center of Jamaica Plain’s cultural district is one step closer to transforming into dozens of affordable housing units and a performance space.
MassDevelopment, the state’s development finance agency, announced Wednesday a $37.6 million tax-exempt bond will go toward refurbishing the former Blessed Sacrament Church on Centre Street.
“This project will bring a historically significant structure back online, creating a welcoming home for dozens of families and individuals and adding vibrancy to the neighborhood,” said Navjeet Bal, MassDevelopment’s president and CEO.
The tax-exempt bond, purchased by Citizens, helped the borrower achieve a lower cost of capital, and Massachusetts Housing Partnership will assume the bond and provide long-term fixed-rate financing for the project upon construction completion.
Local leaders and community members celebrated the new funding announcement this week. They pitched the project as an opportunity to bring more housing to the kind of neighborhood that can most benefit from it: already walkable and transit-friendly neighborhood, but displacing longtime residents in recent years due to higher housing costs.
The reformation of the church is a collaboration between developer Pennrose, which was chosen through a community-led process in 2021, and local nonprofit Hyde Square Task Force, which purchased the property in 2014.
Karmen Cheung, regional vice president at Pennrose, said the MassDevelopment bond is the last funding piece the project needed.
“We have closed on the construction loan and started the actual construction work on the site,” Cheung said.
Work started this past July and is focused on eradicating asbestos first, she said. The project should be done by the end of 2027 or early 2028, she said.
“This church has structural issues. A lot of the first four to six months will be a selective demo of pieces of it and recreating the structure,” Cheung said.
Local community members formed the group Friends of the Blessed Sacrament to support the church’s transformation and have been encouraging city and state officials to provide all possible resources toward the project.
Damaris Pimentel frequented the Church of the Blessed Sacrament when it was in service: it’s where her children were baptized and where her sister got married.
She’s active in the Friends of the Blessed Sacrament and said the group is “really happy” about the financing.
“The community understands that the project is already on the way — it was a question mark if it was going to be possible for them to get there based on how expensive the project was. I think the community is being very patient about it.”
Once complete, the building will have 13 two-bedroom units, 25 one-bedroom units, and 17 studio apartments, ranging in affordability. Ten will be rented to households earning up to 80% of Area Median Income, 27 units rented to households earning up to 60% AMI, seven units rented to households earning up to 50% AMI, and 11 units rented to households earning up to 30% AMI. Six of the units will be reserved for unhoused individuals.
“This development marks a major step forward in expanding affordable housing opportunities in Hyde Square, a transit-oriented, walkable neighborhood that unfortunately has lost some of its residents because of market pressures,” Massachusetts Housing Partnership Executive Director Clark Ziegler said in a statement.
