HYDE SQ.—The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) is continuing negotiations over the Blessed Sacrament Church with a potential buyer, the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF), and has lowered its asking price, according to a spokesperson.
Jason Hutchinson, who also put in a bid for the church, has withdrawn his offer, according to JPNDC.
JPNDC and New Atlantic Development bought the Blessed Sacrament Church campus at 365 Centre St. in 2005. The plan is to turn the church into luxury condos, but JPNDC is exploring whether alternatives are viable.
“I would reiterate that we’ve never left the negotiating table,” JPNDC spokesperson Sally Swenson said in an email to the Gazette. “Our original price was a break-even one, and our most recent offer lowered that significantly.”
The JPNDC said at a meeting in February that its break-even price for the church was $1.2 million. In a fact sheet handed out last Saturday during the Wake Up the Earth festival, JPNDC said it lowered the price by 32 percent.
Swenson said if they lower their most recent offer, JPNDC/New Atlantic would not be able to pay their debt and JPNDC would have to further slash its economic development programs and forgo creating new affordable homes in JP.
HSTF held a rally May 3 at the church, where executive director Claudio Martinez claimed two offers have been rejected by JPNDC.