Use of convent building debated
Developers eye church's property
Overheard during a Sept. 4 meeting in Tremont Street's Mission Church basement, regarding the development of more than an acre of church-owned property: ''All the muckamucks came out tonight, huh?"
The 50 or so people at the meeting included local politicians, business owners, community activists, and members of the clergy, all of whom came to hear from several parties that had expressed interest in developing the Alleghany Street convent, vacant since earlier this summer.
Representatives from the Home for Little Wanderers, a brother from the Catholic outreach group Brotherhood of Hope, two local real estate developers -- Sean Clarke and Jim Newton -- who own several residences on Mission Hill, and another developer, Jason Savage, who lives across from the Alleghany Street Convent, all talked about their possible plans. Also in attendence, but conspicuously silent according to many locals, was Mark Donahue, owner of Weston Associates, who was among those interested in the convent. His company's interest two years ago in demolishing three of the church's buildings on Smith Street -- another convent, a school, and St. Alphonsus Hall -- sparked community outrage at the time.
Reached by phone in his office last Monday, Donahue said he attended "for informational purposes." He said his Newbury Street company has already purchased two wooded plots across from the Alleghany Street Convent and two others on nearby Delle Avenue and Pontiac Street from the church's owners, the Brooklyn-based Redemptorist Fathers. Donahue said he plans to build 21 units of market-rate housing on those four sites. While he said he is still interested in the Alleghany Street Convent, Donahue said he wasn't ready to state his plans at the Sept. 4 meeting.
"It's too early to say," he said.
The Rev. Kevin Milton, pastor of the church, which is also known as The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, said the appraised market value of the Alleghany Street Convent site is $925,000. Milton said renting out the 7,776 -square-foot convent could bring in as much as $74,000 a year.
Joan Wallace-Benjamin, president and CEO of the Home for Little Wanderers, said at the meeting that her non-profit agency is looking to use the site as a group home for about a dozen kids aged 8 to 13. City Councilor Mike Ross and former state Representative Kevin Fitzgerald both voiced support for the Home.
Local developers Clarke, Newton and Savage each said their proposals were rough, because they had only recently learned the site's availability.
"We haven't measured it, we haven't spec'd it, we haven't priced it," said Clarke, who said he wants to use some of the land to build a single-family home for himself.
Many people who live near the property wrote on post-meeting ballots that they would need more information before weighing in favor of any one developer, said Joe Sullivan of the Mission Hill Citizens Advisory Committee, a board of neighbors appointed by the mayor after the Boston Redevelopment Authority intervened in negotiations over the Smith Street properties two years ago.
Milton said that while he intends to keep neighbors involved, investing in the church's financial future is equally important so that "10 years from now, the church doesn't become a museum."
