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Northampton City Council refers St. John Cantius rehab project to committees

Date: 9/6/2022

NORTHAMPTON – During a Sept. 1 meeting, the Northampton City Council referred the St. John Cantius rehabilitation project to the Community Resources and Finance Committees, with hopes of bringing the discussion back to the full council at a future meeting in October.

Within the order, O’Connell Development, the current owner of the church, is asking for $500,000 in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to go toward “critical exterior repairs” to the St. John Cantius Church at 10 Hawley St. for a larger adaptive reuse project. On Aug. 24, the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) voted unanimously to recommend that funds be allocated for this project.

Background

Sarah LaValley, the city’s conservation, preservation and land use planner, said that this CPC project has received more public comment than any other to date. Brian Adams, the chair of the CPC, said he received 61 letters before the Aug. 24 meeting regarding the redevelopment plan. Adams said 48 of the letters were in favor of the plan while 13 were against it.

In 2010, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield closed the church at Hawley Street and Phillips Place after a myriad of parish consolidations. Afterward, several groups put forth failed redevelopment plans for the church, which was built in 1913 by Polish Catholic immigrants. O’Connell Development in Holyoke eventually purchased the property for $1.26 million.

O’Connell initially said they would preserve the church and put townhouses around it, but the coronavirus pandemic put a dent in that plan, so the development group applied to demolish the church entirely for five units of three-story houses for 10 Hawley St.

Also in 2021, the city offered to buy the church for $550,000 to use the property for the city’s Community Resilience Hub, a resource center for the homeless. O’Connell, however, declined the offer in the fall.

After pushback from the public about the possibility of the church’s demolition, O’Connell returned with a redevelopment plan for the church this past spring.

The committee decided then that additional information about the project was needed before any decision on funding could be made. The CPC requested that O’Connell prepare a Historic Structures report with the goal of “informing future work and demonstrating compliance with the secretary of interior standards for the treatment of historic properties.” The CPC also requested that the owner receive the support of the Historical Commission for the application, which they eventually did in early August.

O’Connell hopes to use this money to fund repairs to the church’s masonry wall and its roof where tiles are cracked and missing, and gutters and downspouts must be replaced. The money is part of a broader $4.6 million project to build 10 residences for rent.

CPC members, as well as some people from the public, expressed concerns during the Aug. 24 meeting about the idea of providing public money to a privately-owned church that will ultimately be utilized for market rate housing, rather than affordable housing.

“I’d feel really different if it wasn’t market rate housing,” said a resident, during the Aug. 24 meeting. “If it was affordable housing in there, great, that would be a wonderful thing.”

LaValley said during the Sept. 1 meeting, “Work proposed to be completed with CPA funding was proposed to be used solely for restoration of the exterior of the structure, and it’s not to be involved in any interior work. The future use of the structure came up, but it’s not something that’s not being funded in any way through the CPA.”

Accompanying the Aug. 24 vote were a few conditions that O’Connell must consider as the project progresses. They will have to document that their work fits with a historic structures report, and they also must hire a historic preservation consultant. Additionally, a permanent historic preservation restriction to be held by the city must be placed on the structure.

City Council

“We’re convinced that historic preservation is a public good, that it is respectful to the Polish heritage,” said Adams. “We’ve really done our due diligence.”

According to Matthew Welter, the vice president of development for O’Connell, the redevelopment plan will not include an ownership or condominium structure, but the $500,000 is necessary for the group to develop the 10 residences for rent. He also said that the rebuilt church with 10 market-rate rental units, will be on the city tax roll, which means there will be a payback. “I think a for-profit developer is probably in the best position to take on that financial responsibility that will be significant,” said Welter.

According to LaValley, if O’Connell does not receive the CPA funds, then they do not have an obligation to preserve the historical aspects of the building. There is also currently a pending application within the Central Business Architecture Committee to demolish the church altogether if funds cannot be acquired.

“The CPC felt that it was incredibly important to protect the public investment,” said LaValley. “They wouldn’t have felt comfortable making this decision without an historic preservation.”

Ward 6 Councilor Marianne LaBarge said she still has concerns about the $500,000 and was disappointed that O’Connell declined to take the city’s offer for a Community Resilience Hub at the 10 Hawley St. location.

“I can see where people in the city right now are very upset about what is occurring here, and how we are giving contractors money from out of town for a purpose for themselves, and this is what people are saying, to make big, full pockets,” said LaBarge. “I’m uncomfortable with this … there’s more questions that need to be asked.”

City Council President Jim Nash, meanwhile, said that the current building is in “terrible shape” due to the previous owner’s disregard for its care. “Poor maintenance, and this poison pill of use is what’s driven us to this point where one of the allowed uses is multi-family dwellings,” said Nash. “Yes, it’s a lot of money. There’s lots of muddied water, and with this muddied water, do we want to preserve this structure? I lean towards preserving it.”

Ward 4 Councilor Garrick Perry said, “I believe that this community does need to have a little more input, and I also need to do a little more research We are in desperate need of workforce housing. We are honestly unaffordable for anyone who is an artist.”

Other business

The City Council also voted to rezone 130 Pine St. from urban residence to office industrial to allow Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity – which utilizes the property in conjunction with Florence Congregational Church – to conduct events for art programming and other uses that would not otherwise be allowed under urban residence.

Accompanying the zone change is a development agreement with Bombyx that allows the building to create some revenue and help permanently protect the building. The agreement also stipulates that a historic preservation restriction is executed, as well. Bombyx also plans to continue to create collaborative commercial kitchen by renovating the one on site. Nash said all faith-based parties involved are on board with this change and accompanying conditions.

“The combination of creating rehearsal and rental space for meetings and other activities, bringing the arts into the project, and then also bringing this commercial kitchen into this project, mean there are essentially three sources of revenue to support this building,” said Cassandra Holden, the creative director for Laudable Productions, which is the music and live event producer that bought the property in 2021. “The rezoning is critical … both to enable arts and entertainment, but also to enable us to operate the commercial kitchen.”