NORTHAMPTON — After constructing several condominiums on the property of the former St. John Cantius Church near downtown, the O’Connell Development Group is looking to build more than 50 new apartments across the street.

Members of O’Connell, a real estate group headquartered in Chicopee, held a public meeting with residents to discuss the plan on Feb. 20. The group intends to file plans with the Planning Board this month to build 54 apartment units on the site of a parking lot across the street from the former church on Phillips Place.

In addition, O’Connell has abandoned plans to convert the former church on Hawley Street into housing and instead wants to use the space as a temporary construction office during the building of the apartment units. Upon the units’ completion, the building would then be used as a leasing and amenity office for residents.

In 2022, O’Connell received $500,000 in Community Preservation Act funds from the city to preserve the church building, which closed as a church in 2010. At the time, the group said it had intended to use the church building for 10 housing units, after original plans for a restaurant fell through during the pandemic.

Though the grant was approved by a majority of the City Council, Councilors Alex Jarrett from Ward 5 and Rachel Maiore from Ward 7 voted against it. Both expressed concerns the project did not provide enough public benefit.

“The fact that O’Connell is a private, for-profit entity that will ultimately utilize the property for their own financial gain and not what’s necessarily the best for our community priorities, is why I did not support granting them the taxpayer CPA dollars,” Maiore said this week. “The decision to give them the money was based on a priority for housing.”

Jarrett also said his opinions have not changed since his 2022 vote.

“Historical preservation is a worthy goal,” Jarrett said. “But whether it’s housing that isn’t sufficiently affordable or using for office space, it’s not worth the public cost.”

Sarah Stine, vice president for real estate development at O’Connell, said the CPA grant the company received is for historical preservation of the church’s exterior, and that would continue to apply for the use of the building going forward.

“We had originally planned for housing, but found it was not feasible for the amount of reworking that would need to be done for the interior,” Stine said. “But the exterior facade will be protected into perpetuity.”

Due to the church’s location within the Central Business Gateway District, O’Connell is not required to receive approval from the Planning Board to change plans regarding the building’s interior, according to Carolyn Misch, the city’s director for Planning and Sustainability. “It doesn’t trigger a review,” she said.

The council’s decision to grant CPA funding in 2022 came after several months of deliberation by city bodies who determined that preserving the church — built more than 100 years ago by Polish immigrants — was worth it even if it meant giving taxpayer money directly to a private owner.

The money was earmarked to repair the exterior masonry envelope and prevent further water seepage, but it also came with one string attached — a permanent historic preservation restriction, which grants the Historical Commission the authority to approve any further work as long as the church remains standing. O’Connell had initially proposed a full demolition.

City Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg, who represents the Ward 3 where the proposed development is located, referred to the 54-unit development as “gentrification” and criticized the city’s Planning & Sustainability Department for its stance toward infill.

“Our planning department is simply accelerating gentrification in ways that are not even environmentally sustainable,” Rothenberg said in a statement. “Our infill policies need improvement, and I encourage anyone who lives in Northampton to reach out to me directly so we can work on solutions together.”

Rothenberg was not on the council when the CPA grant was approved.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.