The motherhouse at the Good Counsel campus in White Plains.
The Sisters of the Divine Compassion announced Friday the Roman Catholic order is marketing its 16-acre Good Counsel campus in White Plains, while trustees and administrators explore options and potential relocation sites for the order’s 560-student elementary and high schools on the North Broadway campus.
A spokesman said the nuns have retained CBRE Group Inc. to determine buyers’ interest in all or a portion of the property at 52 N. Broadway and to market it. The campus adjoins Pace Law School and includes 12 buildings totaling 162,180 square feet of space.
Twenty-four nuns live at the order’s motherhouse there, which also serves as a convent, administrative offices and a commercially operated conference and catering center, Mapleton at Good Counsel.
The order in its announcement said the decision followed a 10-year, in-depth strategic planning process and a two-year review of the future of the White Plains campus, which Sisters of the Divine Compassion purchased in 1890. Sister Carol Wagner, president of the order, said the real estate sale is being explored “to assure that we continue our mission and that we are able to provide for the Sisters particularly in their later years.”
She said the future of the Good Counsel schools is a particular concern. The high school has 400 students and 160 pupils are enrolled in the elementary school, and both have outgrown the existing facilities on the campus, Wagner said. The schools’ board of trustees and administration are exploring options and potential locations for the schools, which are independent of the Archdiocese of New York and owned and operated by the sisters.
The CBRE marketing team for Good Counsel is headed by William Cuddy, executive vice president at the company’s Stamford, Conn., office. Cuddy in the announcement called it “a significant and iconic property” and said its location and existing infrastructure make it a “perfect investment opportunity” for a real estate investor or academic institution. He said CBRE’s initial marketing outreach “will gauge the level and type of interest” in the property.
The Sisters of the Divine Compassion have served as educators, administrators, social workers, counselors, religious education teachers, health care professionals and pastoral care ministers at more than 40 schools, parishes and agencies across Westchester County.
“We recognize that for us to continue to serve the needs of so many and to preserve our mission, we must explore paths that while difficult are necessary,” Wagner said. She said the order has been working with a group of local planning, real estate and business professionals “who understand our mission and are committed to our future as we formulate strategies and plans to move forward.”
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