The Monmouth Conservation Foundation, along with the Monmouth County Park System and two separate third partners, have put in bids to purchase and preserve the Stella Maris Retreat Center, which is scheduled to close at the end of the year. FILE PHOTO The Monmouth County Park System and two nonprofit organizations are partnering with a land conservation group in a bid to preserve the Stella Maris Retreat Center in the Elberon section of Long Branch.
William Kastning, executive director of the Middletown-based Monmouth Conservation Foundation (MCF), said two separate proposals have been submitted to acquire and maintain the Ocean Avenue retreat center that sits on nearly 7 acres alongside the Atlantic Ocean.
“The reason we submitted two is each of our proposals has three partners. Each has the Monmouth County Park System and the MCF, but the third partner is different,” he said in a Feb. 12 interview.
Clean Ocean Action (COA), a Sandy Hook-based ocean advocacy group, is a partner in one proposal.
“The most important thing is to protect and conserve Stella Maris, and to ensure its legacy of environmental stewardship continues to thrive,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of COA.
The other proposal includes Finding Words-New Jersey, Hackensack, which works with young victims of abuse.
Both proposals were accepted for consideration by the religious order that owns Stella Maris, Kastning said. He declined to specify the purchase price offer or plans for the gated property, which is assessed at $12 million.
The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, which operates the retreat center, announced last July that it would relinquish the site it has owned for 75 years and that Stella Maris would close its doors at the end of 2015.
Tom Schembers, chairman of the Stella Maris board of trustees, has said the sisters want to protect the property from overdevelopment and the congregation is trying to ensure that the property will not end up in the hands of a developer. “The sisters have decided to let go of it,” he said. “The decision was made because the sisters are aging and they [would] like to have some oversight.
“The more important thing to them is the sacredness of nature, of this particular land.”
Kastning said both proposals are for the same amount and would maintain the property for passive use.
“The nuns want the land preserved, so the land … will have a conservation use on it,” he said. “You can’t have any additional structures unless it is something that supports passive recreation.
“They did not want the footprint of the building increased, and in our proposals we intend to use the building pretty much as it is, with minor renovations.”
He said the MCF is waiting to hear if the foundation is awarded the property.
“We are now in a waiting game, a holding pattern,” Kastning said. “It’s been a number of weeks since we’ve responded.”
If awarded the bid, the foundation would have to conduct an independent inspection and appraisal, as well as secure financing before closing on the property.
Because the county is a partner, the Board of Chosen Freeholders must officially sign off on the purchase.
Kastning said the county and the MCF would use state Green Acres and Blue Acres grants to offset some of the acquisition costs.
Stella Maris opened in 1941 as a summer retreat house for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. The retreat center was originally a Bavarian-style chalet called Sea Cliff Villa and was built in 1868 for James Brown, a member of the New York banking firm Brown Brothers.
Previous owners included George Childs, publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, who bought it in 1869 and convinced President Ulysses S. Grant to have a summer home next door.
Adolph Lewisohn, a copper magnate, used it as a summer house from 1894 until his death in 1938.
In 1963, the sisters bought Grant’s house, which was demolished. In 1993, they transformed the property into a chapel with floorto ceiling glass facing the ocean, a large conference area, kitchen and chapel walkway.
Programs held at Stella Maris include retreats ranging from scripture to prayer and environmental programs. Waterspirit, a ministry at Stella Maris, is based on the importance and sacredness of water.