State Tax Credits Help Turn Old Churches Into Taxable Property

HOLYOKE, Massachusetts — In 2002, the regional Catholic diocese decreed that Holyoke Catholic High School, which had operated downtown in this old industrial city for 40 years, would be closed, saying the buildings were unsafe and renovations too costly. Decades of high school alumni, football teams and families wept and railed, but the deed was done.

The school buildings, including a jewel of a chapel, sat vacant and moldering for more than a decade. But now, with the help of the Massachusetts Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit, federal tax credits and low-income housing tax incentives, the buildings are being turned into sparkling new apartments, with restored stained glass windows, arches and ornate carvings.

“We labored for years trying to find the right use” for the buildings, said Dave Moore, a Holyoke native who works for Weld Management Company, which now owns the buildings. “The [rehabilitation] tax credit put it over the top; we wouldn’t have done it without tax credits.”

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