For sale sign

A group of Boston-based nuns is planning to put a sizeable skilled nursing and rehab campus on the market, in the hope of using sale proceeds to fund a smaller upgrade.

The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm recently announced the availability of Marian Manor, which sprawls across a prime location in the heart of South Boston. They want to build a modern replacement, possibly as part of a new condo or apartment project, or through a land swap, the Boston Globe reports.

Marian Manor is a “beloved” local institution, the newspaper said, but the property is massive and desirable to builders — tallying 2 acres and stretching from Dorchester Street to Thomas Park. Sale brochures label it as “an unprecedented redevelopment opportunity” that’s located in one of “Boston’s most sought-after neighborhoods.”

The nearly 200,000-square-foot complex has seen its census dwindle in recent years. But its 226 beds still have an average occupancy of 93%, the Globe notes. Services offered include a 27-bed post-acute, short-term unit, 200 skilled nursing beds and 11 rest home beds. Sisters told the newspaper that the facility, a former hospital taken over in 1954, is in bad shape.

“We want a better future than a building that has leaks and machinery that’s falling apart,” said Mother M. Mark Louis Randall, prioress general for the Germantown, N.Y.-based Catholic. “Something needs to be done with the physical plant … We want to care for our residents in a better place.”