Convent to become senior housing

The Archdiocese of Newark is planning on having the vacant convent at St. Thomas the Apostle Church converted into residential housing.

Empty for about 10 years, since the Sisters of Charity of Elizabeth withdrew from the school and parish, parishioners were informed of this development in a letter by Pastor Larry Fama, in August.

“When I arrived here in 2019, I knew that the convent cannot and should not remain vacant forever,” he wrote. “I saw the potential in converting the building into independent senior housing to meet the need for this in our area.”

In a recent interview in the church rectory, Fama said the church will host an information night, Monday, Feb. 5, and a Bloomfield Planning Board zoom meeting is scheduled Jan. 25. Nonetheless, he said there had been some unfortunate information circulating.

“The information was that it was going to be migrant housing,” he said, and nearby homeowners were upset.

But Fama said he believed his letter did its job by correctly informing people and since then he has met with nothing but a positive response for the conversion. With an aging parish and people who have been a part of Bloomfield for some time, but now empty-nesters, Fama said providing limited senior housing is “a nice start” for people who want to stay.

He wished there was more the church could do to provide senior housing, but the convent will be made into as many as four double residences and four singles. There will be two parking spaces per unit, in the church parking lot, but plans, he said, can be modified.

Fama said his predecessor had thought about turning the convent into a college dormitory, but that idea failed.

“As soon as I came onboard, I was looking for ways to develop that property,” he said.

A site where different businesses could rent common workspace, following the WeWork model, was considered, but the pandemic scuttled that idea. The Archdiocese of Newark considered using it for a small religious order that would be new to Bloomfield, but Fama said that went nowhere.

“The archdiocese advertises empty buildings on its website, that is how the WeWorks model and the religious order found us,” Fama said. “But in a previous position I had, I came into a successful conversion. This was at Queen of Peace, in Maywood.”

According to the information letter, Fama had asked the property management office of the archdiocese if it knew a developer and Valorev Capital, of Brooklyn, was recommended.

“It was a company the archdiocese has been working with on some projects, including a conversion of the convent at St. Paul Of the Cross, in Jersey City, into senior housing,” Fama said.

According to Fama, Valorev was chosen to develop the Bloomfield property.

“The developer is looking to sign a 99-year lease,” he said. “The income for the parish is minimal. The developer is investing a lot of money to bring the building up to code and make it beautiful inside.”

Notwithstanding the limited monthly payments to the parish, Fama said it

was important to put life back into the building.

“The building doesn’t look bad, but being empty, it’s dead,” he said, adding that it was unfortunate it took so long to get the conversion on the right track. Another developer had been considered, but the project was not big enough.

“People asked if I wanted to sell the building,” he said. “I wanted to keep the campus the way it looks and wanted nothing that would harm the neighborhood.”

Fama was also concerned the project would be too small for Valorev.

“But they came and loved it,” he said, because of its location and accessibility to highways.

“As soon as all the pieces are in place, the developer is ready to go. We haven’t signed a contract and I don’t have a timeline yet.”

St. Thomas is special to Fama because he occasionally attended the 5:30 Mass here. He grew up in Newark and his church was St. Francis Xavier. He said if anyone wants to talk about the future of the convent, he is available at every Mass.

“People are trying to get on a waiting list,” he said. “The developer is handling that, but come to information night.”

According to Fama, St. Thomas serves 3,100 families with more than 10,000 parishioners registered. One hundred and fifty new families were added to the register last year. Its elementary school has 205 pre-K to eighth-grade students.

  bloomfield, St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church