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Resurrection to sell Norwood Park convent, convert to 72-unit assisted living facility
The building was used as a convent and grammar school going back to 1922
An order of Catholic nuns plans to sell its convent in Norwood Park to an affordable housing developer who would convert it into a 72-unit assisted living facility.
Delta Life Services LLC is applying for a zoning change that would allow the nearly 100-year-old building at 7432 West Talcott Avenue to be repurposed as multi-unit residential housing. The proposal, which does not call for any new construction on the property, is scheduled to be heard by the City Council’s zoning committee Thursday.
The LLC ties back to John D. Fiandaca of suburban Ivanhoe and Theodore K. Stec of suburban Countryside. The entity would acquire the land from Sisters of the Resurrection, a religious order that’s owned more than 100 acres at Harlem and Talcott avenues since 1912.
The convent was operated by the order as far back as 1922, when the building doubled as a grammar school. In 1962, students were moved to a newly-built school on the grounds, now called Resurrection College Prep High School, and the convent building has slowly emptied out since.
“You’re talking about a building going from 400 students and 90-some sisters to just 21 sisters, so the expenses were just overwhelming,” said Sister Stephanie Blaszczynski, the provincial treasurer of Sisters of the Resurrection.
Earlier this year, the remaining 21 nuns who lived in the building relocated to the Presence Resurrection Retirement Community, one of three complexes Resurrection co-operates on the campus with Presence Health.
Blaszczynski called assisted-living care the “missing link” of healthcare services offered on Resurrection’s property, adding that she hopes to see the new facility open sometime early next year.
Blaszczynski did not disclose the value of the sale, which is still pending.
Representatives of Delta Life Services LLC could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
In October, Focus Health Care Partners bought a senior housing complex in nearby Park Ridge for $54 million.
Elsewhere on the city’s Northwest Side, Ryan Companies proposed a 265-unit independent and assisted-living residential facility for seniors this year in Portage Park’s Six Corners district. That proposal was later pared back to 250 units.
Artis Senior Living is building a 136-unit assisted-living and memory care facility in the city’s Lakeview neighborhood, and Evergreen Real Estate Group is developing a 193-unit senior housing complex in the old Ravenswood Hospital.