Sacred Heart Finds Buyer

After a long search, an historic Catholic church in the Hill may have found congregants of a new faith to pray in it.

Whether that can happen is now up to the Board of Zoning Appeals. The matter comes before the board next week.

The Archdiocese closed the 135-year old church, Sacred Heart, in 2009 and sent its largely Latino congregants to nearby St. Anthony’s. That led to concerns that the historic building would be sold and turned into expensive condos, or another use neighbors considered inappropriate for the neighborhood.

After a long search, a buyer has finally been found.

It’s the Communidad Cristiana de Restauracion a las Naciones (CCRN), a congregation of a different Christian persuasion but one that would continue the religious use of the property.

According to papers filed at the BZA by attorney Anthony Avallone, who represents the church, application is being made to turn the property into two parcels.

One would contain the existing church, rectory, convent, and three-car garage. The second parcel would contain only the old parish school, the home of St. Martin de Porres Academy since 2007.

According to the filings, only the first parcel is being offered for sale to Communidad Cristiana.

This group, an evangelizing congregation previously headquartered in Orange, would restore the church to its religious use and convert the nearby rectory into six apartments that documents say would be consistent with current zoning regulations.

The convent, whose last use was as a homeless shelter up to 2002, would be restored for ​“purposes accessory to a religious institution.”

The second parcel’s ownership would be retained by the church — that is, the archdiocese — and St. Martin de Porres’s 20-year lease of the property would continue unaffected by the proposed transaction.

The church also seeks permission to use two lots on Columbus Avenue at Salem, across from the Boys and Girls Club, for parking.

Those lots, owned by the church were to be developed as formal parking lots. Instead they reverted to use as community gardens.

According to filings, the right to use of the lots for parking would be renewed. They would be jointly shared by the new owners of the church and the school.

The footprint and the structures on the properties as redrawn would not change. According to Avallone’s submission, ​“All work will be to rehabilitate existing structures and the footprint of all structures on both parcel one and parcel two will not be increased.”

The request for subdivision is being based on a hardship, namely, that the property in its entirety and its configuration has been marketed for over a year, without other offers.

The founding pastor of Communidad is Raul Feliciano. Attempts to reach him were not successful.

Documents indicate that mass would be held at the church Sundays and Wednesdays, and the congregation’s activities would be coordinated, especially as to parking, with the ongoing needs of St. Martin de Porres.

“I think it [the proposed plan] would be good for the neighborhood. We have a lot of Spanish people,” said neighbor and local activist Helen Martin-Dawson, who is also the treasurer of Trowbridge Renaissance, the group that looks after nearby historic Trowbridge Square.

In preparation for the BZA filing, two meetings with the local community and its leaders were held earlier this month.

In one that Martin-Dawson attended, she said, the concerns expressed were mainly about parking and the potential tenants of the rectory apartments.

“We were concerned with cars being all over the street,” she said.

She said members of Trowbridge Renaissance and others were reassured that the recaptured parking on the Salem Street lots and the coordination would avert that problem.

As to the apartments, she said, neighbors were reassured that the six planned apartments would not be used as halfway houses for people recovering from addiction.

Martin-Dawson said she plans to attend the Tuesday BZA hearing and to speak in favor of the proposal.