The former school building of Port Richmond's Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish might see new life as a senior-living community, representatives from the archdiocese announced last week.

It's a plan that local residents seem to back.

"I think it's interesting. It will be great," Geraldine Murphy, who had taught at the school, said of the idea.

The decision was discussed Thursday, Oct. 8, during an evening meeting held in the basement of the former school building at 3233 Thompson St., just across the street from Campbell Square on Allegheny Avenue.

Joe Sweeney, secretary for Catholic Human Services for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, opened the recent meeting with more than 100 residents in attendance.

There was much interest in the fate of the school building, relatively unused since the school shutdown in June 2008 due to a decline in student enrollment.

"I don't stand here as a private developer," Sweeney said of the archdiocese's hopes to reinvent the building as a senior-living community. "It's our hope that this former church facility could allow people 62 years and older to have a place to stay."

Sweeney said the project would be similar to what happened at South Philly's St. John Neumann High School after that school closed in 2004. The school, at the intersection of 25th and Moore streets, merged with St. Maria Goretti High School. In 2006, the archdiocese announced plans to make that school a senior-living complex as well.

Sweeney said that the new facility serves the elderly while allowing the church to continue to provide a service for parishioners.

"The church has a mission to serve you," he said. "This building is one that we think would be perfect for affordable senior housing."

During the evening, Sweeney, along with others from the archdiocese and the Philadelphia-based Blackney Hayes architecture firm - the same firm that handled the conversion of St. John Neumann High - Sweeney detailed the project, even though he claimed the plan is in the very early stages.

"This is just the very beginning. There's no guarantee that we will get the funding, but we have the people in place and we're looking to get started," he said. "You're going to be very proud of what we do here."

As planned, the project would turn the building into a senior-living community called "Nativity B.V.M Place."

The roughly $10 million project would convert the former school building into a 63-unit apartment complex. Each floor would feature about 19 of the 540-square-foot one-room apartments.

The apartments would be available to any city resident aged 62 or older and would not be a nursing home. Instead, it would be an apartment complex with an affordable monthly rent that would equal roughly 30 percent of a resident's monthly income.

But, in order to defray the costs of construction, the archdiocese has applied for various funding and grants from the City and from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development.

It's a process that John Wagner, director of housing and homeless services for the archdiocese, said could take years.

He said that the school's conversion could not begin until funding was secured and, even then, turning the former school building into an adult-living community would take at least a year.

Realistically, he said, the project wouldn't be looking for tenants for at least another three years.

"So, we're getting out here a little early," said Wagner. "We are going to work our tails off with this application."

Making a short visit to the meeting, state Rep. John Taylor (R-177th dist.) talked to the audience about Nativity's importance in the community and the very real effect that the economy has had on the neighborhood. Taylor said that, throughout the city, he sees residents looking to sell their homes and "scale down," by finding new, affordable housing.

"Based on what we see in our office from day to day, it's not a want to scale down, it's a need to scale down," he said. "We're very excited about this new use; we just wish we could do it faster."

Wagner agreed, but said the thorough process will ensure that everything they do to reconfigure the school into a senior-living community is done properly.

Most importantly, he said, the name of the facility will remain.

"Not to name this Nativity B.V.M Place would be a sin," he said. "We're very cognizant of our Catholic identity. We want this to be a good building in this neighborhood and we want to be a good neighbor."

The plan seemed to go over well with the neighbors.

Rev. Dennis Fedak, pastor of Nativity B.V.M parish, said that he was not only in favor of the plan, but that it needed to happen to allow the community to continue to utilize the building.

"I don't want another empty building in the neighborhood," he said. "The building itself is beautiful, but it would look great all freshened up. You have to support the elderly in the community. I think we all need to pray that this happens."

As the meeting emptied out, residents seemed excited about the opportunity the new project might provide, even for them.

"A place like this would give me freedom and take away the responsibility of having a home," said Ron Staszak, of Frankford.

Staszak said he had recently divorced, but his family on his father's side is originally from Port Richmond and he was hoping to reconnect with his roots.

"I'd really like to put (home ownership) to rest and live the rest of my life in peace and harmony," he said.

Murphy, the former Nativity teacher, said that she and her husband, Bill - who also had worked at the school - would be especially excited to return to the building where they spent much of their lives as teachers.

"That's what I keep telling him," she said smiling as she looked at her husband. "I'd like a shorter timeline, but our goal is to have an apartment where our old classrooms used to be."

Reporter Hayden Mitman can be reached at 215-354-3124 or hmitman@phillynews.com