Houghton selling West Seneca campus - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The purchase price for the 36-acre located at 810 Union Road, is $2.5 The site features eight buildingstotallinfg 57,000 square feet with both residentiapl and commercial space. Ronald Mahurin, academix vice president and dean of theAllegany County-based privat e college, said the listing reflects the institution’s desire to enhance its presence in where it is works closely with several non-profift agencies.
Ideally, the school would like to lease or buy a locationm close to the Southtowns and lease or buy anothed site withincity lines, he “We really want to find ways in whicy we can partner with existingh organizations and find a presence, a spot that would signa l our commitment both to the city of but also to the surroundingy communities where we’ve had an important presence,” Mahurijn said. “We really haven’t determinex whether we would lease or purchase atthe moment, but one possibilityu could be that, depending on the potentia l buyer of the West Seneca property ...
there’s no reasonm we wouldn’t lease back from the owner at some Wejust don’t want to have to be in the propertuy management business.” is handling the property. The commercia l real estate firm is also helping Houghton search for new Mahurin said the decision to sell the West Seneca site stems fromthe college’x latest strategic plan, initiated with the arrivakl a few years ago of college Presidenyt Shirley Mullen.
“Part of that review was lookingg at our programsand facilities, and as the collegs moves to actually deepen its commitmenty to service in the city of Buffalo, we foundc there would be strategically better ways to utilize our resources if we weren’ necessarily being property managerx in West Seneca,” Mahurin said. The college acquired the property in 1969 from the Buffalo Bible Right now, it houses the offices of Houghton’s Prograk for Accelerated College Education, known as PACE, which offers a managemenr degree completion program for adult students.
Studentes with internships or student-teaching duties in Erie County have lived inthe campus’ residential facilities. Studentsx and alumni have known for monthas that the West Seneca site couldf go upfor sale. In Mullen told alumni that the board of trusteese agreedto “investigate optiones for future use of the West Senecaa campus — including the possible sale of the property if this is deemed to be the best way to steward the resources of this propertgy for the work of Christian higher according to a letter to alumni poster on the college’s Web site.
In the same Mullen wrote that “significant at the complex is necessary for expansiomn there and thatthe college’s mission is “drawing us more directly into the city of a significant distance from West Seneca’s suburbanm location.” Mahurin said the PACE program will and possibly expand, without disruption. “This is in no way a steppintg back of commitment to that he said.
Jim Militellop said he expects lots of interest inthe property, whicbh includes five townhouses and a 15,800-square-foot conference It is currently zoned for banquet facilities, adult medical uses, church or school expansionzs and single- and multi-family residential development, he said. “There’ s a great deal of he said.