Nuns announce sale of St. Martin Monastery

By Mary Garrigan, Journal staff | Thursday, April 05, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

St. Martin Monastery will be sold to two groups that will continue the Catholic nuns' long-standing ministries of health and education.

Offering a prayer of thanks to God for allowing them to "share our legacy with future generations," Sister Lorane Coffin, prioress of the religious community that ran hospitals and schools in western South Dakota for more than 100 years, announced Wednesday that 200 acres of the monastery's land was bought by the Good Samaritan Society. The Lutheran-affiliated group is the largest not-for-profit provider of nursing home and other housing services to seniors in the nation. It will build various types of senior housing in the forested valley just off Sturgis Road on the western edge of Rapid City.

Another 200 acres of land and the 150,000-square-foot monastery building were bought by the Rapid City Catholic School System and the Diocese of Rapid City for future expansion of the Catholic school system and for educational ministries of the diocese.

"The sisters had a specific vision about what they wanted here, and we're just glad that we get to be part of it," Bishop Blase Cupich said.

Ron Kortemeyer, administrator of two Good Samaritan properties in New Underwood and Rapid City, said he was thrilled to be part of the new uses for the property.

"Being able to be part of a Christian community that brings together children, seniors and Benedictine sisters in an environment of learning and care is an appealing aspect of the partnership," Kortemeyer said. "As these groups of folks come together to continue the ministry and mission and legacy of St. Martin's, it is a glorious day."

Coffin declined to reveal the purchase price paid by either buyer, but proceeds of the sale will fund a new, smaller monastery building to be built within the next 18 to 24 months somewhere on the 160 acres of land that the community will retain. There are about 30 Benedictine nuns of St. Martin's, almost all of them in their 70s and 80s.

"We can say in terms of the sale price, we are grateful we got a good deal," the Rev. Greg Wilcox, a vice president with Good Samaritan, said. "We appreciate that tremendously."

Neither buyer revealed specific plans about how they'll use their new properties.

Kortemeyer said a continuum of senior housing with services - in the form of apartment buildings, an assisted-living facility or free-standing independent-living twin homes - might be built. An apartment building similar to the Echo Ridge facility on U.S. Highway 16 is most likely. That 5-year-old facility has 59 apartments with services such as meals and housekeeping, as well as an attached smaller assisted-living component.

The master building plan for the St. Martin property also allows Good Samaritan to construct twin homes on the site. Because of a statewide moratorium on skilled nursing beds, there will be no nursing-home facility built there, he said.

"We plan a campus-type community as it relates to the school and the monastery," Kortemeyer said.

The 850-student Catholic school system in Rapid City consists of an elementary school, St. Elizabeth Seton, where there is currently a waiting list in some grades, and a 250-student high school, St. Thomas More. Superintendent Barb Honeycutt said she was excited to continue the sisters' mission of academic excellence while addressing some growth needs of the school system.

"This purchase opens up new opportunities for us to do some long-range planning as we address the space limitations of our current facility," Honeycutt said. The monastery includes the classroom and dormitory buildings of the former St. Martin Academy, a high school that closed in 1991.

"The school and diocese are still in the planning stages, and we're discussing our facility needs," Honeycutt said. She anticipates announcing those plans in the near future.

Cupich said the priests and Catholic school parents of the Rapid City diocese favored the investment.

"The vast majority were in favor of getting involved and having this property available for expansion," he said. "The purchase of this building allows us to think outside the box and think in new ways about alleviating the pressures on our space."

A capital campaign will raise the money for the purchase. "We don't have the money on hand, and we're going to have to raise it," Cupich said.

No demolition and no serious renovation is planned for the monastery at this point, Cupich said.

"Things are in good shape. It was a school, and while they sort of mothballed parts of it, the sisters have kept things in good shape," he said.

The diocese won't actually pay for the property until the nuns move out of it. They have 30 months to do that but hope to have their new home built before then.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8410 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com