Bayport-Blue Point Library to buy and refurbish convent for $16.85M

Voters in Bayport and Blue Point voted by a 2-to-1 margin in favor of spending $16.85 million to buy a vacant convent and turn it into a public library, according to Newsday. The Bayport-Blue Point Public Library will buy the St. Ursula Center for $3.65 million and then spend another $13.2 million to refurbish the home for retired nuns. While doubling the size of the municipality’s current library, the plan will result in a tax hike for local homeowners, with each household experiencing an additional $228 in annual taxes. Library officials hope to close the convent purchase soon so they can start finding contractors for the project, whose renovation is expected to take two years and still requires the approval of the New York State Education Department. The convent’s owner, the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk, put the property on the market in 2017. The Ursuline Sisters, some of whom are now holding estate sales at their longtime home, initially agreed to sell the convent to a Westhampton Beach-based drug rehabilitation center, but the latter pulled out of the deal due to opposition from some local residents. The money from the sale will be used to pay for the care of the nuns who lived in the convent. [Newsday]