Atlantic Union: Campus fixes needed before sale in Sept.
Photo | Courtesy | Colliers International
Haskell Hall at Atlantic Union College in Lancaster
Atlantic Union College will have to make utility improvements to its Lancaster campus as part of a sale agreement for the 135-acre site, an executive for the affiliated local church office said Friday.
Selling the campus three years after the college closed comes with a few challenges. They include 13 buildings connected to a single sewer pump, with some of those buildings being sold separately from the yet-unnamed school that has tentatively bought the site, said Elias Zabala, the treasurer and CFO of the Atlantic Union Conference, part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A small campus power plant will need updated connections to campus buildings.
The utility work is planned to start soon with warmer weather, Zabala said. A sale is expected to close in September, according to the real estate firm Colliers International, which had listed the campus for sale.
Zabala lamented the closure of Atlantic Union College, which ended operations in 2018 with a small student body, a lack of accreditation and millions of dollars in debt.
"AUC was a challenge, and still is a challenge,'' he said, referring to work that's taken place since the school closed. That includes paying off the college's debt and campus upkeep, including a new roof that's needed for the library.
Many Atlantic Union college students transferred to other Seventh-day Adventist Church-affiliated schools in Michigan, Tennessee and Texas, Zabala said. As for the campus's future for another school, he said the expected sale is still in early stages, which is why the prospective buyer can't be named.
"We've accepted an offer," he said. "That's where we are."
Some small pieces of the campus have already been sold separately, including a 42,000-square-foot office building and a series of multi-tenant residential buildings.
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