Design-Build firm Sixteen Penny has put forward three plans for the development of the Poor Clare Sisters monastery at 920 Centre Street over the past 2.5 years, and all have been opposed by the Arnold Arboretum and a host of Jamaica Hills homeowners.

The third plan was filed as a supplemental notification on June 23, and the Boston Planning Department (BPD) sponsored a heavily attended Article 80 public meeting on July 8.

Then things got messy with the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC).

“The required (sic) Article 80 presentation to the JPNC housing committee did not occur,” JPNC chair Alcurtis Clark told The Bulletin. “The community was not afforded the opportunity to review and discuss the proposal through the (sic) established public review process,” Clark said.

After two weeks of mixed communication, Sixteen Penny was offered a last-minute time slot at the July 28 JPNC meeting.

John Holland, CEO of Sixteen Penny, repeated his July 8 Article 80 presentation: A steel frame, five-story, three-building complex of 158 units – 79 market-rate condominiums and 79 apartments. A total of 36 apartments would be affordable at 60 percent area median income (AMI), and two would be offered for mobile voucher holders. That makes 24 percent of the proposed housing affordable units.

The three-building, U-shaped complex of brick and terracotta would be set back 50 feet from the Arboretum boundary and 80-to-90 feet from Centre Street, all sides of which would be thickly planted with trees and shrubs.

Despite an advertised and well-attended Boston Planning meeting two weeks earlier, most JPNC members seemed unaware of the development plans. Dave Baron chair of the JP Zoning Committee (JPZC) was the only council member to attend the July 8 meeting and he told the July 28 council meeting he was concerned.

“Three different designs,” Baron said. “I’m concerned about all this expense just to appease one neighbor. It’s not worth a ton of money to appease this one abutter. [The developer] is offering a 50-foot setback enforced by an easement to appease the Arboretum.”

The council wasn’t appeased. It wanted an extension of the comment period and requested that Sixteen Penny make a presentation to the Aug. 18 Jamaica Plain Housing Committee (JPHC).

The Planning Department agreed to extend the comment period (for the third time) until August 28.

Between July 28 and August 18, Sixteen Penny got some favorable press.

“Boston desperately needs housing. Why can’t [the] plan for vacant monastery move forward?” asked Trea Lavery in her Aug. 16 MassLive blog. “Sixteen Penny is on the third version of the proposed building design [since 2021] but has yet to get the blessing of the immediate neighbor, the Arnold Arboretum. Arboretum Director Ned Friedman has repeatedly asserted that the redevelopment would cast shadows on the trees.”

About 45 callers were on the Aug 18 JPHC virtual meeting, and Holland repeated the presentation he gave to the JPNC.

All summer Holland has been specific about to whom 920 Centre Street was being marketed: “The condominiums are for people who are downsizing [like] ‘empty nesters’ and the apartments are for people who work in the area and can live nearby.”

“One of the drivers of housing is employment. There are two employment centers,” Holland told the housing committee,“The Faulkner Hospital with about 2,500 jobs and the Longwood Medical Area with 68,000 jobs. There are 1,000 jobs along Centre Street, all within a short walk to transit.”

“People are commuting long distances,” Holland said, “There’s an employment demand for housing in this area.”

Four council members spoke in opposition of the plans for 920 Centre, but six neighbors called in their support, one of whom was Lisa Johnson who said she lived on the Jamaicaway.

Johnson questioned the costs of each of the plans. “Each interation increases the costs of this project,” she said.

Holland agreed. The two-and-half-year delay has seen increased interest rates and architect fees, he said, on top of the $2 million for demolition, and the large trees on the 50-foot set back.

The Bulletin and Holland met on a TEAM call on Aug. 24 and he went into more detail. “The [three] redesigns cost $1.5 million,” he said. “We expected $500,000. Moving the new building back 50 feet required demolishing the old convent. That’s $750,000 for demolition.”

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No one on the neighborhood council has ever considered the Poor Clare Sisters, but Holland said he has. “We couldn’t do it in sequence,” Holland said, by acquiring the property first and then relocating the Sisters.

“We have the monastery under agreement, but we found a perfect place for them [the Sisters] in Westwood,” he said. “We couldn’t wait. We’re carrying the interest on that property. Its not an insignificant business cost.”

The added costs of 920 Centre Street “are going to be borne by the market rate condominiums,” Holland said, estimating an additional $85,000 added to the price of each condominium.

At the July 8 Article 80 meeting Holland said the going condominium price in Jamaica Plain is $750 to $850 a square foot.

“It’s difficult as it is, this excludes the affordable component,” he said.

Holland repeated what he’s said at four public meetings this summer, “This is being funded with private equity, regular commercial banks.”

“The market-rate condominiums are driving the affordable units, but if the condominiums are too expensive, buyers will look elsewhere,” Holland said.

“I’m waiting for the Arboretum’s response,” Holland said referring to a meeting on Aug. 20 between a variety of city officials and Arboretum Director, Ned Friedman.

“He wants us to reduce the height of the wings,” Holland said. “That’s a modification of design.”

“The comment period ended Aug. 28. If the city wants more changes, [it will require] a fourth iteration. This will be an impact; it will be financially impossible,” he said.

Reducing the size, reducing the number of units will have an impact.

“We may no longer have the ability to do that. We’re approaching the unit density,” Holland said.

“This will affect the Sisters,” Holland said.

Jon Chesto and Shirley Leung wrote in The Boston Globe on Aug. 20 that the delay is affecting the Sisters. “The Monastery of Christ the King, located in Florida, merged last month with the Boston nuns so they can retire together in Westwood. But there’s no room at the inn.”

“After three years, patience is wearing thin. Michael Perry, Minister Provincial of the Franciscan Friars [with which the Poor Clares are affiliated] asked that the project move as “expeditiously as possible” in an Aug. 11 letter to Sister leader Mary Veronica McGuff with Archbishop Richard Henning copied.

There may be a higher power over Ned Friedman.