The oceanfront parcel of Maris Stella Retreat and Conference Center in Harvey Cedars has sold to a local home builder for $14.75 million, closing the book on a Long Beach Island property that served as a Catholic convent getaway for generations of nuns and other visitors.
The sale covers the ocean side of the property, according to Asbury Park Press, which reports the retreat had long been a vacation spot for nuns and other visitors searching for serenity along the Jersey Shore. The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth had operated the Maris Stella Retreat and Conference Center on the site since 1959, according to nj.com.
A Once-In-A-Lifetime Listing
The property first hit the market in September 2024 with a jaw-dropping ask of $21 million, nj.com reported at the time. The listing described a large dining hall, a guest house, and a bath house on the grounds, with the bay-side property across the street deliberately left out of the sale. The site was touted as one of New Jersey's largest oceanfront, residentially zoned parcels, spanning an L-shaped 2.48 acres, per the same nj.com report.
The Philadelphia Business Journal framed the opportunity similarly back then, describing it as a chance for developers to build multiple houses or a single sprawling estate right on the beach. Two years later, the parcel finally found a buyer in a local home builder, though for roughly $6 million less than its original 2024 asking price.
Years Of Municipal Back-And-Forth Over Subdivision
Long before the sale closed, Harvey Cedars officials were already wrestling with what a subdivided version of the property might look like. According to work session minutes from the Harvey Cedars Board of Commissioners, an earlier application to subdivide the land into nine homes was withdrawn after the state Department of Environmental Protection sent a deficiency letter. A subsequent two-home oceanfront plan later received a DEP permit, and a revised application proposed four additional lots, bringing the total described in the minutes to six, with the DEP still processing that expanded plan as of the December 2025 meeting.
Those same minutes identify four areas of major concern tied to any development of the parcel: emergency vehicle access, the possibility of extending 72nd Street to the beach, dune protection, and the property's RAA zoning designation, which requires single-family lots in any subdivision to have a minimum area of 7,500 square feet. The commissioners ultimately voted unanimously against changing the zoning from RAA to RA, the minutes show. It remains unclear from the public record whether those earlier subdivision plans and DEP permits will govern whatever the new owner ultimately builds.
A Piece Of The Property Already Found New Life
Not everything tied to the old retreat is disappearing under new construction. The Kane House, a cottage that once stood on the Sisters of Charity property, was relocated to Sunset Park, where it is being transformed into the Harvey Cedars Museum, according to The SandPaper. That museum is expected to open in time for Memorial Day weekend 2027, the outlet reported, giving Harvey Cedars a tangible link to the convent's history even as the oceanfront acreage itself heads toward a very different future.
