Long Island parish selling former Sisters of St. Joseph Convent in Valley Stream

The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Name of Mary is selling a vacant Valley Stream property formerly used as a convent by the Sisters of St. Joseph, for more than $3 million, court records show.

The two-story property, at 94 South Grove St., would be converted into a multifamily residential housing project with an estimated 30 to 35 units, an appraisal report states.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre said the sale was unrelated to the church's bankruptcy proceedings, which concluded in December 2024.

"The convent, a residence previously used by religious sisters at Holy Name Parish, has been vacant for a number of years," said the Rev. Eric Fasano, noting that religious corporation law requires the parish to file papers with the court before selling property. "The parish has chosen to sell the vacant and unused convent."

Holy Name of Mary, a Catholic elementary school located next door to the vacant convent, will remain open and is not part of the sale, Fasano said.

Records associated with the sale, filed in Nassau County Supreme Court last week, show the parish will sell the 25,000-square-foot property to Blueprint Community Development LLC for $2.1 million, with the amount subject to increase by $33,000 for every residential unit built on the land. 

The 30 to 35 units would increase the sale price by an additional $990,000 to $1.155 million, according to the appraisal.

If Blueprint is unable to receive the necessary approvals from the village to build the housing units after first demolishing the existing property, the buyer would have the option to terminate the sale, records show.

Messages left with Blueprint Community Development's attorney and with the Village of Valley Stream were not returned.

Holy Name Convent was operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph, now based in Brentwood. 

The convent, along with the Holy Name of Mary school, opened in 1939, according to Virginia Dowd, an archivist with the Sisters of St. Joseph.

As of 1956, 16 nuns resided in the convent while teaching at the school, which at the time was experiencing rapidly growing enrollment, according to the Sisters of St. Joseph centennial yearbook for that year. The school currently has 277 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, records show.

The nuns lived on the property through 2013, Dowd said.

The diocese, one of the largest in the nation, declared bankruptcy in 2020 because of the potential payout from some 600 lawsuits filed by clergy sex abuse survivors under the New York State Child Victims Act. The law allowed childhood victims of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attackers no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

The four-year court battle, which included the sale of its Rockville Centre headquarters and a former seminary in Lloyd Harbor, concluded in late-2024 as both sides signed off on a $323 million settlement.

The diocese, its parishes and other related entities contributed a total of $234.8 million to the settlement, the church said at the time. Insurance companies added about $85 million, while the Counsel for the Creditor's Committee put in $3 million.

"This [convent sale] has nothing to do with the bankruptcy process, which was completed over a year ago," Fasano said. "This sale was a parish decision."

CORRECTION: The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Mary is selling a vacant Valley Stream convent. A previous online version erroneously stated in the story and a headline who was selling the property.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.