Diocese of Paterson sells ex-Neumann Prep site in Wayne to Islamic school

WAYNE — The Catholic Diocese of Paterson sold a vast parcel that it has owned for almost six decades on Black Oak Ridge Road to an Islamic school based in Bergen County.

The 25-acre property, directly across from Farms View Roadstand, was purchased for $13.5 million by the Academy of Greatness & Excellence, which has served Muslim students of all ages for nine years. It now has campuses in Ridgefield Park and Teaneck.

The property had been occupied by Neumann Preparatory School, a seminary for young men who seriously considered priesthood as a vocation. It closed at the end of the 1989 school year, and the 56,000-square-foot building that remains is leased to a different Islamic institution.

In a statement posted to its website, the academy said that its new asset is the largest site owned by an Islamic educational organization in New Jersey.

"Securing such a property to educate future Muslim generations is a dream come true," Rashed Rashed, the chairman of the academy's board, said in the statement.

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Neither the academy nor the current lessee of the property, Al-Ghazaly Junior-Senior High School, returned calls seeking further comment about the sale.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Paterson issued a statement on Thursday, saying the church continually examines its "financial footing," including property holdings. He said the sale is a "beneficial act of stewardship" and "helpful to an institution of learning."

"The sale of the former Neumann Prep serves the work of education for a faith-based school and is a prudent decision, in light of the ongoing needs of the diocese," he said.

The $13.5 million property sale comes as the Diocese of Paterson faces numerous sex abuse lawsuits that could add enormous pressure on its finances. New Jersey had suspended the civil statute of limitations for civil sex abuse complaints for two years through December 2021. In that time there were more than 820 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clerics, teachers and nuns against Catholic dioceses and orders in New Jersey, including at least 85 against the Paterson Diocese.

The many lawsuits come as Mass attendance and revenues are down. Some Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have even filed for bankruptcy protection over the past two years, including Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo in upstate New York, Rockville Centre on Long Island, Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, New Orleans, and Camden.

Considered 'unique' when it opened

Neumann Prep was built at the same time as Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church, situated on 10 acres that abut the campus to the east on Hamburg Turnpike.

The prep school — named for a bishop — was considered to be "unique" when it opened in September 1966, according to news archives. It reached aspiring clergy members as they were entering high school. That was important because there were 207 priests for 350,000 parishioners in the diocese, one article noted.

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But by the spring of 1990, the prep school was drowning in debt.

The diocese announced in April of that year that it would close Neumann Prep and Pope Paul VI Regional High School on Valley Road in Clifton, inciting protests by students and an effort by parents of the Wayne campus to form a private corporation, break away from the church and open their own school.

The diocese, however, rejected their offers to buy the property, according to published reports, and the prep school shut down as expected.

The campus was rented to multiple private schools over the years, though Al-Ghazaly has occupied it since September 2013. Its current lease agreement will expire at the end of June.

The future of Al-Ghazaly is uncertain after that, but the academy that purchased the property promised in its statement to allow the junior-senior high school to extend its lease, if it chooses to do so.

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"If that will no longer be the case," Wahid Melook, the academy's chief financial officer, said in the statement, the academy will "expand its operation" to the township. Pending local approval, he said, the property would then be redeveloped.

The two Muslim schools already have a rapport.

The landlord of the building rented to the academy on North Street in Teaneck is the Islamic Education Foundation of New Jersey Inc., a nonprofit that runs Al-Ghazaly and Al-Hikmah Elementary School on North Eighth Street in Prospect Park.

The academy's building on Mount Vernon Street in Ridgefield Park is the former St. Francis of Assisi School, which it also leases.

The academy said it has an enrollment of 500 students and that, for the past five years, it needed to maintain a waitlist for dozens of more parents who wish to register their children.

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson Diocese sells ex-Neumann Prep property in Wayne NJ