St. Charles Borromeo Seminary bought part of Gwynedd Mercy campus for new home

St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has acquired a portion of Gwynedd Mercy University’s campus to start building a new home, the seminary said Thursday.

In all, as announced in April 2021, the seminary plans to pay Gwynedd Mercy $10 million for 15 acres and two buildings on the northern side of the Lower Gwynedd Township campus. The Maguire Foundation is giving Gwynedd Mercy an additional $3 million to supplement the price.

The first phase of the acquisition, completed Thursday, includes one building and land where the seminary plans to build a new chapel, and a student life center that will include a refectory for communal dining, classrooms, a library, administrative offices, a fitness center, and housing for seminarians and resident faculty.

The second phase includes a 204-bed dormitory called Alexandria Hall, now occupied by Gwynedd Mercy students, and is expected to be undertaken in the spring after students depart at the end of the semester.

Gwynedd Mercy and the seminary will remain separate institutions.

The total project cost is $54.5 million, including the purchase of the campus. Construction is expected to begin next month. The goal is to start seminary classes on the new campus for the 2024-25 school year.

That price tag is up significantly from the original conception of $38 million, which did not take into account high inflation and features that were added as the architects fleshed out plans through an in-depth review of what the new campus needed, Bishop Timothy C. Senior, the seminary chancellor, said Thursday.

Added amenities include an auditorium as an additional gathering place for the entire school and a choir loft for the chapel, Senior said.

“Our alumni and the seminary community itself and I think the broader Catholic population in the archdiocese really wants a chapel that is worthy of our tradition,” Senior said. The new chapel will also feature stained-glass windows and the high altar from the Wynnewood campus, he said.

The seminary in 2019 sold its historic 73-acre campus at the intersection of City and Lancaster Avenues in Lower Merion to Main Line Health for $43.5 million, but continues to occupy the site under a lease. That sale was part of the seminary’s effort started 10 years ago to occupy a smaller footprint.

Senior estimated that $25 million to $30 million of the sales proceeds remain after the seminary contributed $10 million to the archdiocese’s reparations program for victims of sexual abuse by clergy and settled a lawsuit related to the sale.

“We believe we have in cash and pledges what we need” for the new campus, Senior said. ”It can’t get any more expensive.”

The seminary had overall enrollment of 133 seminarians, including 66 who intended to work in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the seminary said.

Main Line Health is working with Lower Merion Township on zoning changes required to start on its plans for the seminary site, which is across Lancaster Avenue from Main Line’s Lankenau Medical Center, a spokesperson said. Those plans include a mix of medical offices, senior housing, apartments, condos, and stores as well as a small hotel, Main Line and its development partner said in May.