Topics / RELIGION : Disappearing Retreat : Jesuit hideaway on Monrovia Nursery land will close Aug. 28. Encroaching development and a building in disrepair led to decision.

For almost 50 years, the Manresa Jesuit Retreat House was a place for everyone from recovering alcoholics to those seeking to escape the daily pressure cooker of life in L.A. for a weekend of meditation and prayer. But escalating maintenance bills and the possibility of a new housing development have cost the San Gabriel Valley one of its last slices of serenity.

The retreat house, on about six acres of the 600-acre Monrovia Nursery in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains near Azusa, has been put up for sale and will close Aug. 28, said the Rev. Gerald Robinson, the retreat’s executive director.

“We’re pretty upset about it,” said Ruben Quezada, director of plant operations at the retreat, who has worked there 15 years. Quezada is among 20 employees who will lose their jobs when Manresa closes.

“It’s like losing your home,” he said.

The Jesuits who run Manresa have decided to look for a new location and rebuild rather than spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to repair the 62-year-old house’s plumbing and lighting fixtures, Robinson said.

Another reason for the move was that the nursery and a developer have been discussing building housing on the nursery property--a move some priests believe would ruin the retreat’s tranquil atmosphere.

Spokespeople from Monrovia Nursery and Lewis Homes said they have considered building houses on the property since the late 1980s. The nursery has not decided to sell any of the land, although the prime real estate could command a price well into the millions of dollars, marketing director Rodger Duer said.