Mother Nature has not blessed Blessed Sacrament in Jamaica Plain with good weather.

The planned Jan. 26 groundbreaking ceremony was buried in two feet of snow and the rescheduled April 30 event was rained on with a hasty, muddy, outdoor photo op of raised construction mallets.

But at least the speakers program was inside the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) building with 10 pubic officials, the Task Force, Penrose Development and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

For Wu, the Blessed Sacrament development is a trifecta, as she was quoted in the Mayors Office of Housing press release: “It preserves an historic landmark, creates affordable housing, and preserves a community performance space in the heart of Hyde Square.”

As reported on at length by The Bulletin over the past six years, construction began last fall on the adaptive reuse of a century old church into 55 mixed-income apartments and 6,000 square feet of performance space for HSTF.

The 55 apartments will range from studios and two bedrooms for residents earning between 30 percent and 80 percent of median family income, and six of those are set aside for formerly homeless.

The 10 speakers, mostly funding agencies, were introduced by Rebecca Schofield, Blessed Sacrament project manager of Penrose Management Company.

Penrose answered a Request for Proposals put out by the Task Force in 2021; the Task Force bought the church building in 2014 for $816,000 from the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) when it was unable to redevelop the building.

“Hands down the best community process I’ve ever been involved with,” Schofield said.

HSTF director Celina Miranda inherited the church when she started in 2016 (and hosted the unforgettable Latin American Spectacle inside the vacant church on May 29, 2016).

“Our clear purpose,” she told the groundbreaking audience, “was to preserve the church building for community use.”

“Penrose shared that belief that the [redevelopment] serves the people who live here. We came together with shared values.”

John Block, HSTF board member and chair of the church committee, has been on the redevelopment process since 2020.

“We looked for a development partner [who could] do an extremely challenging, deteriorating church building,” he said. “They had the experience.”

But it’s just the first phase for the Task Force.

“We’re starting the next phase, capital campaign to fully build out the performance space and modernize the Task Force headquarters.”

In her remarks, State Rep. Samantha Montano said, “Whenever you see a crowd in Jackson Square, you know Hyde Square Task Force is having an event.”

In 2020 the estimated cost for the performance space was $25 million.

“It’s the work of all that we’re trying to do to address the housing crisis,” Wu said.

“In the past four years we’ve created 1,300 new units of housing in Jamaica Plain. One thousand affordable.”

Acknowledging the funding challenges for new housing Wu said, “After the program we’re going to have a bill signing, a home rule petition. A real estate transfer fee [2 percent fee on transactions after a $2 million sale].”

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“It’s our fourth time. It’s very modest, very reasonable for real estate over $2 million. We would have generated $160 million if this had passed four years ago.”

“We truly need every bit of resources for our community,” Wu said.

The city has been generous to Jamaica Plain recently; on April 22 it awarded $3 million to the Rogerson development and $3.8 million to 294 Hyde Park Avenue.

Schofield continued on her timeline details, saying in 2023 the first funding was awarded.

This was in February 2023 with $6.2 million in low-income housing tax credits from the Office of Housing and Livable Communities.

“A project of this scale is no small feat,” Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) Deputy Director Jennifer Maddox told the groundbreaking audience, adding that the state contributed $14 million.

Schofield listed the reasons why: no less than eight quasi-public and private funders added to the estimated (in 2025) $40 million development cost.

“It’s a complicated financing structure,” she said, and she ran through a list of funders: MassDevelopment, MassHousing Partnership, Citizens Bank, CVS Health, Federal Home Loan Bank, and CEDAC.

“This cost us a lot of money,” said Montano.

Maddox added that Blessed Sacrament is “in a transformative moment.”

“Hyde Square Task Force and Penrose had a vision,” she said. “Adaptive reuse is a smart solution to the housing crisis.”

Tom O’Neil, representing Senator Ed Markey, took the floor and said that Penrose and the Task Force are “transforming a vacant historic landmark into a community benefit.”

“This a remarkable multi-purpose space in Jamaica Plain,” he said. “Mixed-income, adaptive reuse for safe and stable housing in Jamaica Plain.”

Rachel Heller of the MassHousing Partnership added, “Adaptive reuse is an important strategy for housing development. It preserves and created new housing.”

“This is a shining example of housing for a variety of income levels,” Heller said. “When we come back for the ribbon cutting, 55 households will be living here.”

For more information on the project, go to https://gvimes.link/blessedsacre