Church deal infuriates
Ah, to be Michael Indresano. He's a South Boston-based photographer with a star-studded list of corporate clients. His website says he's worked for every major advertising firm from Boston to New York. He's shot portraits for the Globe's Sunday magazine.
Which is all well and good, though not the point. The point is that Michael Indresano seems to have completely lucked into nearly $2 million in cold hard cash, an amount that's causing anxiety within the Boston Catholic Archdiocese and outrage in the State House. The question nags: Did Cardinal Sean O'Malley make a colossally expensive mistake -- or worse?
In short, Indresano bought the shuttered, century-old St. Mary Star of the Sea church and its rectory and parish hall in East Boston from the archdiocese on Nov. 16 for $850,000.
Indresano then sold the property 19 days later to the Universal Church of New York City for the grand sum of $2.65 million, in essence posting a $1.8 million profit in 19 days. If Indresano devoted himself to real estate, he could probably buy and sell Massachusetts by the end of the year.
Indresano's good fortune has inspired some good old-fashioned Catholic fury, prompting critics to question whether the archdiocese was incompetent or corrupt in the deal.
For their part, church officials say they have no idea what went wrong in the deal. O'Malley spokesman Terry Donilon said the archdiocese originally sought bids on the St. Mary property in 2004, right after shuttering it, but rejected them because they were too low.
From February 2005 to February 2006, the church received one offer, from Indresano, for $850,000. The amount, Donilon said, was for more than the appraised value, so officials accepted. The two sides agreed in February 2006, resolved some environmental issues, and closed on Nov. 16. Indresano put the property in the name of a limited liability company called MEE Development.
"He said to us that he was going to use it for a photography studio and residential use," Donilon said. "We had no relationship with him before. We had no knowledge that he was going to flip it. This was an anomaly. We are going to learn from it in the process going forward."
Believable? Let's go to the other side.
Indresano's lawyer, Howard Fisher of Boston, said Indresano became enamored of the church because of the high ceilings and the great light, and planned to relocate his commercial studio there. He bid on it once, was rejected, then made another offer a year later.
Once he reached an agreement last February, he presented a package to the city for rezoning, did traffic studies, hired an architect for the rehab. "He truly intended to occupy that space," Fisher said.
What happened? Well, he said, a funny thing happened between the purchase and sales agreement and the closing.
"He was approached by a broker on behalf of the Universal Church and an inquiry was made on whether he was interested in selling," Fisher replied. "Like any other businessman, he said he wasn't intending to sell, but make me an offer. The result was a staggering number, of which I assume you're aware."
Fisher added, "It's as if he had won the lottery when he heard those words."
The Universal Church, which had been shopping around Boston for a site, wired the $2.65 million into Indresano's account 19 days later. When I tried to ask Universal Church yesterday if they feared they overpaid, they referred calls to someone named Regina in its Manhattan headquarters. She didn't call back.
The deal has left Catholic officials sputtering. "This is an anomaly," Donilon repeated. "We think our real estate marketing has worked."
Said an angry Secretary of State Bill Galvin: "Whether by accident, inadvertence, or deliberately, for the church to lose money like this is incredible."
I'll give the last word to Fisher, whose client got every last dollar out of the deal: "He happens to be a private citizen who found himself in a fortunate situation."
Very fortunate, indeed.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. His e-mail is mcgrory@globe.com. 
