Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo urges OneUnited not to foreclose on Charles Street AME church

By Beth Healy, Globe Staff

Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo wrote a letter this week to OneUnited Bank chairman Kevin Cohee, urging him not to foreclose on a $1.1 million loan to the historic Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Arroyo, in a letter dated March 5 and obtained by the Globe, said he was writing on behalf of his constituents and as a member of the Roxbury church. He said he urged OneUnited to take the same care and compassion that was afforded to you by the federal government when the bank received a $12 million bailout in the financial crisis.

He said the bank should meet with church officials to negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement and end these foreclosure proceedings that, if acted upon, would be an atrocity of immeasurable harm.

OneUnited has advertised plans to auction off the church property as soon as March 22.

The bank sued the church in 2010 for failing to repay $3 million on a construction loan for a nearby community center. The foreclosure threat is on the church property itself, related to a separate loan that came due in November. The bank has said its given the church ample time to meet its financial obligations.

Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree has offered to mediate the dispute; the banks top executives by Tuesday evening had not yet agreed to a meeting.

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Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo urges OneUnited not to foreclose on Charles Street AME church