Officials with the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown are in talks to sell their Allegheny Township office complex to the Garvey Manor Nursing home and move the diocesan headquarters to the City of Altoona.

The diocese will move from its four-building complex along Logan Boulevard to a building owned by Our Lady of Lourdes Parish at 2317 W. Chestnut Ave. pending zoning approval, officials said in a written statement. Diocese spokesman Tony DeGol described the move as a cost-saving procedure akin to the sale of the bishop’s residence two years ago.

“It’s one building versus the four in this complex,” DeGol said. “It’s less square footage, but it’s big enough to meet our needs.”

DeGol didn’t offer a timeline on the transition.

The diocese’s future office currently houses the Lily Pond Child Development Centers, which will have to move when the change is complete. The secular child care center serves up to 150 children.

“We are working closely with the diocesan office to make it a smooth transition for all of the families and all of our employees,” Torrey Powell, director of operations at the Lily Pond, said. “We’re sad to be leaving here. We’ve been here 15 years.”

The diocese’s move to Altoona would coincide with a property sale to Garvey Manor, the Roman Catholic nursing home and living center along Logan Boulevard.

Garvey Manor Administrator Sister Joachim Ferenchak declined to provide details of expansion plans, but said the facility will likely have to grow as the region’s population ages. Garvey Manor moved to its present location in 2003.

“It would depend on us acquiring more land. We are relatively landlocked,” she said.

The diocese has operated from its Logan Boulevard complex since 1972, but the facility’s 14-acre size and four buildings pose a hefty expense. Approximately 40 diocesan employees work at the complex, DeGol said.

He estimated the diocese could save $125,000 each year by transfering to a single building on a smaller plot of land leased from a Roman Catholic parish.

“It’s nowhere near what we’re spending here,” he said.

In a written statement, Bishop Mark Bartchak said diocese officials considered the money-saving measure appropriate as the church deals with civil cases surrounding past child abuse. The diocese’s sale two years ago of the bishop’s official residence – and the bishop’s move into the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament – is part of the same shift, he said.

Several other Catholic dioceses, including some in Boston, Minnesota and Washington state, have sold their central offices in recent years, he noted.

Mirror Staff Writer Ryan Brown is at 946-7457.