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Hyde Square to get pricey condos

By adamg on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 6:14am

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports a developer plans to turn the old Blessed Sacrament Church into condos going for up to $725,000 apiece.

Neighborhoods: 
Jamaica Plain
Free tagging: 
Development
Hyde Square


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Comments

By merlinmurph on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 10:06am.

At that price, you really should buy two adjoining units and knock a wall down to get one big unit. ;-)

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By anon on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 1:21pm.

TERRIBLE.

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By James H. on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 4:43pm.

Too bad they never seriously considered the cohousing project that was proposed a couple of years ago. They had a great plan and would have included affordable units in the church, too.

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By tenfortyseven on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 5:48pm.

Great plan? Maybe, but what was missing from it was a way to pay for it. From what I've read, due to the high costs of turning that hulk into apartments , co-housing wasn't financially feasible.

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By John-W on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 5:13pm.

Well, I'm assuming this should start all the Whose Food people frothing. This is, after all, the gentrification they were freaking out about. $725K a pop condos in Hyde Square? Wasn't there some sort of community process going on about affordable housing or something? I don't live in JP or closely follow its community goings-on (beyond UHub, of course), but I vaguely recollect something about that.

I'm amazed this post hasn't yet opened up one of those threads that indent all the way over so that each post is composed of two word lines of invective and hyperbole. C'mon y'all lettin us down!!

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By tenfortyseven on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 5:41pm.

I've walked out my door and looked at the church every single day for 22 years and I don't think the building sitting empty, decaying, being a blight on my neighborhood for the last 8 of them was the answer. The catholics selfishly made sure it can never be used as a church again (thanks, cardinal) which doesn't leave many options. Yes, New Atlantic did build the heinously unattractive building next door to the church, but at least they're trying. No one else has come up with a sensible re-use or the funds to make it happen. And by the way, the JP gazette says most units are gonna be in the 400K range. Yeah, that's above the average price of a condo in JP, but it doesn't sound outrageous, and it certainly doesn't sound particularly "pricey", or "high end."

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By issacg on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 5:56pm.

because anyone who would pay $725K for a condo down there, regardless of how large, is out of his/her mind.

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By bb on Sat, 07/21/2012 - 7:40am.

At the worth of the condos in this neighborhood (yes, i live here).

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By tenfortyseven on Sun, 07/22/2012 - 5:48pm.

I'm always surprised when someone pays 4 times for a tiny condo what I payed for a large one family house. What real estate is worth and what it costs are two very different things.

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By stevegarfield on Sun, 07/22/2012 - 4:39am.

According to the article...

"No affordable units are required within the church, because affordable housing that New Atlantic and JPNDC built elsewhere on the church campus already covered that City requirement, Roth said."

"When the church closed in 2004, JPNDC and New Atlantic bought it specifically to ensure a large amount of affordable housing would be built on the site, which is now complete. The church was planned to be high-priced condos, partly due to construction expense and partly to subsidize the rest of the project."

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By anon on Mon, 07/23/2012 - 10:28pm.

I was baptized in Blessed Sacrament, attended elementary school there and was an alter boy. It was a beautiful church with many ethnic Irish, Italian, Polish, etc., parishioners. But by the 80s the writing of course was on the wall. The high level of street crime and violence that's afflicted that part of J.P. since the 1970s destroyed the working and middle class nature of the neighborhood and most fled. I can remember as kid witnessing full scale riots along Centre St by the project kids who attended the Curley School. They'd riot and smash and rob all the stores along the way and beat up innocent people who got in their way. Never reported by the media of the day. Police used to block Centre Street going onto Columbus Ave during summer months off and on due to large crowds from the projects swarming cars at lights along Columbus, pulling them from their cars and beating the snot out of them. Now it' being turned into expensive condos. Who in their right mind would pay that kind of money when Bromley Heath is just blocks away?

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