The real estate developer who is buying a major portion of the financially strapped Burlington College campus has expanded his offer.
Eric Farrell will purchase not only the 27 lakefront acres surrounding the college but also the 44,000-square-foot Victorian building at the front of the property for an additional $2 million on top of the $7.65 million pricetag for the land, the college announced last week.
Farrell will also get the first right-of-refusal to buy the six acres the school is set to retain, which include a smaller building where the college holds classes and a green space behind.
Farrell intends to renovate the larger building into student and market-rate housing, according to the college. Farrell also plans to build housing on 25 of the 27 acres he will buy.
As a result of the two deals, the school will have a debt total of less than $3 million, reduced from the current $11.4 million, the college said. The deals will also reduce the operating costs from mortgage payments, utilities, maintenance and taxes.
The college has been in financial trouble since it bought the campus from the Roman Catholic Diocese in 2010 under former president Jane O’Meara Sanders.
Burlington College officials over the holidays updated the sales agreement with Farrell to include the building. He paid a $150,000 nonrefundable cash deposit for the land and is set to pay a $250,000 deposit for the building next week, when the land deal is expected to close.
The building sale is set to close in January 2016, according to the college.
The building Farrell is set to buy was built in the 1880s and used by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington as an orphanage for as many as 200 children until 1983.
The last inhabitants were Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees, according to documents from the 2010 sale of the building. The building became the diocese headquarters in 1978.
The diocese in 1996 and later in 1999 settled with at least 74 people who claimed they were abused by diocese staff.
Burlington College said when it bought the campus that it intended to renovate the older building but never had the money to do so. The part Farrell will own is joined to the newer, 33,000-square-foot 1940 addition that Burlington College now uses.
The deal is moving forward smoothly with no foreseeable obstacles, according to a statement from the school issued last week. The original closing date was Jan. 20, but will likely be later, college spokeswoman Coralee Holm said.
Holm said the school decided to sell Farrell the orphanage building as well since the college is not using it and does not have money to renovate it. It had nothing to do with stipulations from People’s United Bank, which holds the first mortgage on the property, she said.
“As you know, the college has no resources so that building is sitting there and we’re not able to invest money to renovate it,” Holm said. The college, meanwhile, pays to heat it, she said, because there is one heating plant for the orphanage and the addition.
Board chairman Yves Bradley did not return a call seeking further explanation about the orphanage deal.
Farrell has promised to set aside two acres of his parcel as public open space and also allow a path to cross the property on the north side by the cemetery and connect the bike path with North Avenue.
Although the deal is for $7.65 million, the college will only see about $3.5 million of that sum.
Farrell settled the school’s debt of approximately $4 million with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which sold the property to the college to pay settlements in sex abuse cases.
The college is on a two-year academic probation from the regional accrediting agency. The agency requires monthly reports from the school and has asked instructors to prepare contingency plans by March for students to finish their programs at other institutions, should the college close, Holm said.
New interim President Carol Moore has begun work at the school with her team of advisers, Holm said. Classes are to begin Jan. 20.
The college will not know exactly how many new students enrolled this semester until after the 10-day add/drop period, she said.
A group of residents who want to stop the land from being developed are organizing a community meeting Jan. 21 to rally support for an attempt at conservation.