Muslim Nonprofit Acquires Former Catholic Seminary in Bay Shore

A former Catholic seminary and boarding school in Bay Shore has been sold to a Muslim nonprofit with plans to revive a similar use for the property.

Clifton, N.J.-based United American Muslim Association purchased the three-story, 70,000-square-foot building on 14.6 acres at 26 South Saxon Ave. for $5.2 million.

The Bay Shore seminary complex was founded in 1926 by the Monfort Missionaries, which closed the boarding school on the property in 1972 and more recently served as a home and retreat for Catholic priests.

The site was slated to be transformed into an assisted living facility by McLean, Va.-based Sunrise Senior Living, which had been in contract to buy the seminary parcel more than four years ago. However, stiff opposition to the assisted living project from neighboring residents helped scuttle the plan.

In March 2023, attorney Alfred Amato, of Garden City-based Amato Law Group, who represented Sunrise, filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the Town of Islip after the town board failed to schedule a public hearing on the developer’s scaled-down proposal to build a 90-unit assisted living facility on a 7.5-acre portion of the Montfort Spiritual Center property. That lawsuit is no longer pending.

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