The site of the 452-acre Immaculate Mary Retreat Center, which is under an agreement of sale for $5.5 million, has been on the market for approximately two years.
There was a previous potential buyer but it never got to the point of an agreement of sale, according to Deacon Thomas Croke, who is the archdiocesan Director of Real Estate Services. Now there is an agreement of sale with David Davis, a Bethlehem-based developer.
The property itself was the site of a former seminary for the Congregation for the Mission (Vincentians) which opened in 1939, and was sold to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and operated for a Spirituality Year program of St. Charles Seminary from 1991 to 2005. For a brief period after that it was operated as a retreat center for the general public.
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Final settlement for the property is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2015, according to Deacon Croke.
Another tract of land also has been sold at St. John Vianney Center in Downingtown for approximately $3.7 million. The 55-acre parcel, located along U.S. Route 30 and Woodbine Road, includes ground in the front and rear of the property, and does not affect the hospital which retains 15 acres.
The facility is an archdiocesan residential behavioral treatment and education center for religious and clergy. The purchaser was Kahn Development.
Other archdiocesan properties on the market at this time, according to Deacon Croke, include the former Kennedy-Kenrick High School site in Norristown, which is expected to close this year.
Others include the former St. Vincent’s Orphanage on State Road in Philadelphia; St. Pius X High School in Pottstown; the former De La Salle in Towne site on Van Pelt Street in Philadelphia; a 60-acre property in Downingtown called the Lloyd Farm, the sale of which is on hold because of a proposed gas transmission line coming through the area for which the route has not been finalized, and other smaller properties, Deacon Croke said.
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I will keep our good Deacon Croke in my prayers. You are doing a great job. I hope we never lose you. I found out last night that I can get your homilies on the computer. This was told to me by a member of ST. Thomas Moore Parish. We were praying with a member of St Issacc Jogue Parish at an abortion clinic When will this stupid act ever end. I try not to mediatate on it. Love Paul