Debt-ridden Burlington College signed an agreement to sell developer Eric Farrell 27 acres of its lakefront property for $7.65 million on Tuesday.
Under the arrangement, Farrell will buy the vast majority of the campus’ 33 acres. The college will retain the remaining six acres, comprising the building, a parking lot and a green area behind the building.
Interim college leaders Mike Smith, Jane Knodell and David Coates shepherded the college through the deal. The three leaders were appointed by the board in September after former President Christine Plunkett resigned in August.
Knodell will now serve as a member of the board of trustees, according to a news release. Smith and Coates have finished their terms and a new interim leader, Carol Moore, has been appointed.
“This is a major opportunity for the college,” Moore said in the release. “We look forward to completing the sale and continuing to serve our students and grow enrollment.”
Farrell is set to give the school a nonrefundable deposit of $150,000 on Dec. 19 to secure the deal, according to the news release. The closing is scheduled for Jan. 20. The contract includes a contingency that allows a conservation group to purchase the land from the college for $7 million by mid-January.
The agreement struck Tuesday between a unanimous board and Farrell mirrors the memorandum of understanding signed in November except with regard to the number of acres. Farrell originally was set to purchase 25 acres for $7.5 million.
The new deal adds approximately 1.3 acres of open space to the land Farrell is buying. That land must remain open and available to the college and the public, according to the release.
The parcel will be combined with another 0.7 acres that Farrell has committed to offer as open space, the release says.
Farrell plans to build more than 400 units of affordable, senior and market-rate housing on the other 25 acres.
According to the MOU, Farrell agreed to pay the school $3.5 million and assume the college’s $4 million debt to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, from whom the college purchased the campus in 2010.
