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In First Land Sale since Bankruptcy, Archdiocese Eyes Auction of Old St. Elizabeth Campus in Kenner

By Ramon Antonio Vargas
Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate
June 18, 2020

https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_51cc5042-b1a7-11ea-a79f-d7607e337886.html

The old St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School, via seasschool.org

In its first move to raise funds through selling land since filing for bankruptcy protection, the Archdiocese of New Orleans is set to auction off a campus that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School moved out of last year, a church attorney said at a federal court hearing Thursday.

The former owner of New Orleans' Fair Grounds race course, residential developer Bryan Krantz, offered to buy the vacant complex at 4119 St. Elizabeth Drive in Kenner for $1.8 million on May 26, according to court documents. But a committee of unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy case — which includes clergy abuse claimants — objected, saying there was no sign the property’s market value had been appraised before the archdiocese agreed to sell to Krantz.

"One concern we had was what basis was there (for the price), what marketing had been done, is there an appraisal?" committee attorney Davin Boldissar said during Thursday's phone-in hearing.

Archdiocese attorney Mark Mintz told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Meredith Grabill that his clients now planned to auction the facility through a process allowing for the possibility of higher bids. Mintz said he would file the details surrounding that auction ahead of a hearing which Grabill tentatively set for June 25.

Krantz on Thursday declined to talk about his plans for the site, and an archdiocesan spokesman said he couldn’t make additional comments, citing a policy against publicly discussing the bankruptcy proceedings outside of court.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 1, saying the move was necessary after numerous clergy abuse lawsuits and the coronavirus pandemic dealt serious blows to its administrative offices’ finances.

Documents filed earlier in the bankruptcy have shown the church with $243 million in assets and $139 million in liabilities. But several parties who say they are owed by the church have argued that church officials are vastly understating archdiocesan assets, especially in documents which list the worth of a sprawling array of church properties as “undetermined.” The archdiocese's leadership has denied those assertions.

Bankruptcy filings offered a value for the current campus of St. Elizabeth on 4335 Sal Lentini Parkway, where it moved in the fall of 2019. That property is valued at nearly $1.5 million. But the filings don't mention any property under the address of St. Elizabeth’s former campus that is currently up for sale.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his vicar of finance, Patrick Carr, on May 1 said the archdiocese would generate funds by selling unused land and buildings — as well as other methods — before turning to investments or properties which the church or its parishes are currently using.

"Parish funds are separate from archdiocesan accounts, and the pastor decides how those are used for parish ministry," Aymond wrote in a letter to local Catholics that day.

The archdiocese has sold property it considered surplus before, when Aymond’s predecessor Archbishop Alfred Hughes ordered the closures of several churches and mergers of others during a streamlining plan to ease financial hardships following Hurricane Katrina.

That plan included merging the north Kenner parishes of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Nativity of Our Lord into a new church named Divine Mercy.

Divine Mercy is next to the St. Elizabeth school’s new campus.

The rest of Thursday’s hearing involved housekeeping matters in the bankruptcy case, such as allowing the archdiocese to hire a financial advisory firm and special insurance counsel.

Eventually, Grabill will set a date by which anyone with claims against the archdiocese from before May 1 must file them. That deadline, called a “bar” date, has not been set as of Thursday.

A flood of new claims, especially ones involving alleged clergy abuse, are expected before that bar date.

 

 

 

 

 




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