John Holland of Sixteen Penny has been trying to develop housing on the three-acre Poor Clares’ Monastery property since May 2023 and has been through multiple public meetings.

But in a virtual meeting with The Bulletin on June 18 Holland admitted, “The project came off the rails a year ago; the big hurdle was proximity to the Arnold Arboretum.”

This was in the wake of the last public meeting on March 3, 2025 convened by the Boston Planning Department (BPD) as part of the Article 80 process.

As reported by The Bulletin, Sixteen Penny proposed a four-story, 85-unit condominium building at the rear of the monastery building that would be converted to 38 senior housing apartments.

Nothing happened in the meantime but Holland apparently was talking with The Boston Globe editorial board; a blistering Globe editorial came off the press on March 7, 2026.

“The story of… 920 Centre Street is a case study on how housing doesn’t get built in this city.”

“It’s a story about how one mid-sized project and a developer willing to make one compromise after the other can’t move in the face of one powerful opponent who has the ear of city hall [the Arnold Arboretum].”

Sixteen Penny is now willing to spend a million dollars on new trees to shelter the Arboretum; “massive trees, 60-70 feet high,” Holland told The Bulletin.

“Tree screening. We met with (Director of the Arboretum) Ned Friedman three weeks ago,” Holland said. “We gave the Arboretum a tree easement.”

But Holland said Friedman was worried about, “What would happen in a hundred years?”

So Holland said, Sixteen Penny would give an enforceable, recorded agreement added to the condominium agreement that gives the Arboretum the right to enter the property and cull trees and plant trees; “this agreement will be concurrent with the city lease.”

The brick wall around the outside of the property would remain.

Part of the agreement would also guarantee a “no build” provision within 50 feet all around the new building. Sixteen Penny will also change the color of the building from a red brick to green copper siding.

“We haven’t heard back from him,” Holland said.

Sixteen Penny has made even more changes to 920 Centre St., now called “The Magnolia.” Another such change is from mass timber construction, as first proposed in 2023, to steel structure for a much lower building, Holland said later.

The most significant design changes were first reported in The Boston Business Journal on June 9, 2026. The monastery building will be razed to be replaced by three, attached, five-story buildings set more than 50 feet from Centre Street. The fifth floor would be set back with a green roof terrace.

The buildings will be set around an interior courtyard garden open to the Arboretum. The massing would be alleviated by glass atriums between the three buildings. The current turnaround will be removed with a broad planted garden and a border of trees shading the building from Centre Street.

The entrance will be set into the far right edge of the property.

There will be no senior housing but 158 units of a mix of condominium and rental; an increase of 35 units.

Ironically when the Poor Clare Sisters first announced in March 2022 they were going to sell their property and move to a new home, they wanted the monastery razed; they felt the religious purpose had been served and they did not want it reused.

This caused community uproar and the preservationists were mobilized, which apparently surprised the Sisters; they decided to keep the building. A year later Holland planned to turn it into senior housing.

“The existing monastery will have to come down.” Holland said. “There’s asbestos, pipes and boilers. But it was a purpose-built building, 8-by-10-foot rooms.”

“Mainly removing the existing monastery allows for the 50-foot buffer, moving the building closer to Centre Street.”

The revised 920 Centre – now The Magnolia – will be an uncommon mix of condominiums and rentals with two levels of below-grade parking for 150 spaces, which is also unusual.

There will be 79 market-rate condominiums and 79 rental apartments.

Thirty-eight of the rental units will be affordable, 36 at 60 percent area median income (AMI) and two with permanent mobile vouchers.

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Home ownership and rental units will be scattered throughout the five floors.

“We’ve done a lot of traffic analysis,” Holland said. “All turns will be right turns, into and out of the site, the turnaround has been removed. There will be 20 parking spaces for visitors.”

“We’ve met with (the Department of Conservation and Recreation) DCR and they’re satisfied with the traffic management plan, Holland said adding, “We’ll give them some land from 920 Centre St. for the new Murray square signalized intersection. They’re at 25 percent design.”

Sixteen Penny has been more proactive in getting their new plans out; they have a public relations firm, Benchmark Strategies, which emailed The Bulletin and set up the June 18 Team call.

Holland went back to the Globe editorial board and got a sympathetic editorial on June 18 “in the midst of a housing crisis… 920 Centre has become the canary in the coal mine about how serious the city is about growth.”

According to Holland he met twice with the IAG and implied that he was supportive.

A meeting with the Jamaica Hills Neighborhood Association (JHNA) was held on June 22 and Benchmark sent the time and link to The Bulletin.

The JHNA met for nearly two hours with 50 people on the call, all of whom discovered 50 ways to say no.

Ranging from unfriendly to hostile as the meeting wore on, not one speaker had a good word. “Shoving this down our throats.”

“This is too big. You’re redefining our neighborhood.”

“This is not what I bought my house for.”

“You’ve addressed the concerns of the Arboretum but none of the concerns of the neighborhood.”

One caller demanded to know why Holland increased the unit count to 158 from 123. Holland replied that the addition of larger trees and the set back of the building “added significantly to the cost, $2 million.”

“Oh so it’s just your bottom line,” the caller said.

Holland told The Bulletin on June 18 that the next step was a supplemental filing in with the Planning Department (submitted on June 24)and a second Article 80 meeting in August.

Holland said he was hoping for a Boston Planning and Development Agency Board vote in late August.

The Bulletin asked about the Poor Clare Sisters, who still own the property.

“The Sisters are waiting patiently, but it’s very stressful for them,” Holland said. “They’re settled but need help with their new monastery, an addition for more sisters. More rooms, a chapel. Elevators. Handicap accessibility, the sale of the monastery will pay for that. They’re stuck in this process.”

No one at the JHNA meeting asked about the Poor Clare Sisters, their neighbor for 90 years.

A Boston Planning-sponsored IAG meeting is scheduled for July 6.