Cenacle retreat site is on the market
Warrenville's Cenacle Retreat House officially is for sale, perhaps the result of the Cenacle Sisters taking their not-for-profit status a bit too literally.
The Cenacle Sisters Friday announced their desire to sell the property, but deferred questions until next week. The retreat's been a mainstay of the community for nearly 70 years under the direction of the sisters.
A written statement tells part of the story.
A drop in the number of Cenacle Sisters to minister around the world, as well as a dip in visitors to the retreat house has made the cost of maintaining the facility unmanageable.
The Warrenville campus averaged about 2,000 retreats a decade ago.
However, the retreat's Web site shows the fees charged to visitors fell far short of meeting the costs of programs by as much as $50 per person. That seems to have combined with the voluntary nature of receiving donations to create a major problem.
"Therefore we have had a deficit budget of as much as $200,000 per year," reads a statement on the retreat's Web site.
The question for Warrenville is what will become of the property. The 42-acre site probably is larger than all the land the Warrenville Park District owns combined, park President Barb Thornbury said.
That makes the retreat property a major target for public use.
Warrenville city and park district officials will meet with The Conservation Foundation and the DuPage County Forest Preserve District Monday afternoon to try and make that a reality.
Thornbury, Warrenville Mayor David Brummel and Forest Preserve District President Dewey Pierotti all expressed interest in working together to keep the Cenacle property as close to its existing state as possible.
Pierotti said the forest preserve district is interested in the land because it's contiguous to the western border of the Blackwell Forest Preserve. A good portion of the land also is forested.
The park district is most interested in the open space and condition of the buildings on the grounds for public use.
City leaders don't want a dense housing development replacing the natural scenery. Extensive floodplains on the land could make development difficult.
The major unknown at this point is the asking price for the property. None of the interested organizations knew the price tag on Friday afternoon.
None of the organizations have even recently toured the retreat to provide a guess at its value.
The old Illinois Bell Telephone Co. first developed the property in 1918. The company ran a convalescent home on the site for telephone operators to recover from burnout. The Cenacle Sisters bought the property in 1938.