A nonprofit development team completed the $14 million acquisitions of a Fenway roominghouse that prompted complaints of discriminatory marketing and leasing practices.
The Planning Office of Urban Affairs acquired the Our Lady’s Guild House property at 20 Charlesgate West, according to a Suffolk County deed filed Monday.
POUA, which is the Archdiocese of Boston’s affordable housing developer, and Fenway Community Development Corp. announced in March they had placed the 109-unit property under agreement.
The seller, a Connecticut-based religious order, reached a settlement with Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office last spring that included a $115,000 fine and a freeze on rents.
The property was originally established by the archdiocese in the 1940s as a roominghouse for older women.
Tenants, assisted by Greater Boston Legal Services, filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office after Boston-based MRR Management began raising rents and marketing the single-occupancy units as short-term rentals to college students.
The new owners announced last spring they will place a deed restriction ensuring the property’s permanent use as affordable housing, and plan a capital improvement program.
Colliers Executive Vice President Jeanne Pinado represented the sellers in the transaction.
Editor’s note: This report has been updated to include the transaction’s brokerage representation.






