For the Poor Clare sisters who left their Jamaica Plain monastery three years ago, life has been stuck in neutral while City Hall weighs a controversial redevelopment next to the Arnold Arboretum. The sale of the 2.88 acre site cannot close until the city finishes its review, and the sisters say the delay has left them “in a state of crisis” as they try to expand their new home. Their 2023 move to a smaller property in Westwood eased immediate repair woes but left the community scrambling for space and certainty.
What’s proposed at 920 Centre St
The development team is pitching a two part project that would keep the monastery building but dramatically change how it is used. The plan calls for renovating the existing monastery into senior rental apartments and putting up a new mass timber residential building behind it, together creating about 123 housing units. Under the proposal, the former monastery would become 38 senior rental units, 25 of them income restricted, and the new construction would add roughly 85 condominiums. The project also includes parking, long term bicycle storage and about 8,000 square feet of amenity space, details listed on the project’s page, according to BostonPlans.
Arboretum concerns and city review
Next door, Harvard's Arnold Arboretum is urging the city not to rush this one. Arboretum leaders warn that new construction at the site's edge could cast shadows, affect views, damage tree roots and alter water runoff, issues the director says call for a perimeter wide approach. The arboretum has already raised about $4 million for entrance improvements, and Boston's Parks Department is planning a road realignment within the park that could start by 2028. As reported by The Boston Globe, the Planning Department is "urgently working" on the review, and until that process wraps up the sale of the property cannot be completed.
Sisters' new home in Westwood
After years of mounting repair bills at the brick monastery in Jamaica Plain, the order bought and moved into a former retreat at 590 Gay Street in Westwood in 2023. On the nuns' website, the property is described as having a 17 room main house and living spaces more suited to daily community life. At the same time, the sisters note that the new building does not have the extra bedrooms and chapel they hope to create using proceeds from the Jamaica Plain sale. The move and its limitations are laid out on the order's site, according to the Poor Clare nuns' website.
Permits, timeline and next steps
Because the site sits on a parkway and borders public parkland, the project is undergoing a Large Project Review under Article 80B and is still listed as "Under Review" on the city's project page, according to BostonPlans. The developer, Sixteen Penny Company, and its design team have submitted multiple revisions aimed at addressing Arboretum and neighborhood concerns, and city staff will use the Article 80 process to spell out issues that must be resolved before any closing, according to Sixteen Penny Company.
For the sisters, the wait has been bruising. "It's like life is on hold," Sister Mary Veronica said, adding that repairs at the old site had simply become unaffordable, with one upper cloister repair estimated at roughly $300,000. The monastery's assessed value has climbed over the last decade as well: the property was assessed at $5.1 million in 2013 and is now nearly $9 million, according to The Boston Globe.
