Mount Carmel property sold; housing planned

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
 
WORCESTER – The 5.3-acre property of the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Mulberry Street was sold for $5.6 million on Wednesday, Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish at Our Lady of Loreto Church, reported.
The buyer is PR II/Wood Mulberry Street LLC, from Lexington. James Lambert, managing director of the developer, Wood Partners, said they plan to build a 370-unit apartment complex and a five-level parking garage for residents and their guests. A sky bridge is to connect the garage to the building with market-rate apartments of one, two and three bedrooms.
Construction on the project, called Alta on the Row, is set to begin next week, and leasing is earmarked for the fall of 2023, according to Mark Seck, vice president of Wood Partners.
A community room in the complex is to exhibit Our Lady of Mount Carmel memorabilia, Mr. Lambert said.
 Bishop McManus closed Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in 2016, due to safety concerns from structural issues, the estimated cost of rehabilitation and the parish’s inability to pay for it. A group called the Mount Carmel Preservation Society worked to prevent demolition and to reopen the church. 
Worship was moved to Our Lady of Loreto Church at 37 Massasoit Road. In 2017 the bishop merged the two parishes and in 2019 Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church was demolished. 
Efforts to sell the Mount Carmel property, appraised at $3.78 million, have been in the works for five years, Msgr. Pedone said. He said that, according to Massachusetts law, the official owner, and therefore the seller, is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, corporation sole. Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates, who specialize in commercial real estate, marketed the property.
The 22-28 Mulberry St. property includes the space where Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and rectory stood, where the Gene DeFeudis Italian-American Cultural Center still stands, and the parking lot, Msgr. Pedone said. 
The Joe DiMaggio Little League Field at 28 Mulberry St. is also part of the property. The city is to relocate the baseball field to Cristoforo Colombo Park (East Park) on Shrewsbury Street, according to Anthony Petrone, a parishioner who has been the Little League’s president for more than 30 years. 
Part of the property was deeded to the Diocese of Springfield by the state for $1 in 1947 (before Worcester became a diocese), with the stipulation that that property would revert to the state if the church tried to sell that piece to anyone except a religious or youth sports entity. Because of a disagreement about whether this stipulation still applied, a settlement was reached. As such, the parish will give the Commonwealth of Massachusetts $650,000 and the City of Worcester $150,000 from the proceeds of the sale, Msgr. Pedone explained.
The proceeds will also be used to pay attorney fees and to pay off the parish’s $1.8 million debt to the Diocese of Worcester, he said. He said this will be the first time in more than 40 years that the parish is not in debt to the diocese.
Msgr. Pedone said the parish expects to get $2.66 million, which is earmarked for installing air conditioning in Our Lady of Loreto Church, replacing the roof on the parish center and repairing fencing, on the Massasoit Road property. The proceeds are also to be used to create an endowment to make the parish financially secure, he said.
“For me it’s very bittersweet. I grew up in that parish. … That parish has always been very close to my heart,” Msgr. Pedone said this week.
He said people made a “valiant attempt to try to save” Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church but “they couldn’t really raise the money to fix it” and “the bishop made the decision that no more money should be put into it.” 
A majority of the members of the parish council, finance committee and property committee voted to recommend to the bishop that the property be sold, he said.
“It’s sad, but we have to move on,” Msgr. Pedone said, noting that now the property will generate tax money for the city and proceeds from the sale will help the parish.