Houghton selling West Seneca campus - Kansas City Business Journal:

uhetemejih.wordpress.com
The purchase price for the 36-acre located at 810 Union Road, is $2.5 million. The site featuresw eight buildingstotalling 57,000 square feet with both residential and commercial space. Ronald Mahurin, academic vice presidentf and dean of theAllegany County-baserd private college, said the listing reflects the institution’sw desire to enhance its presence in where it is works closely with several non-profiyt agencies. Ideally, the school would like to lease or buy a locatioh close to the Southtowns and leasse or buy another site withincity lines, he said.
“We reallhy want to find ways in whichu we can partner with existing organizations and finda presence, a spot that woulr signal our commitment both to the city of but also to the surrounding communities where we’ved had an important presence,” Mahurin “We really haven’t determined whether we would lease or purchasw at the moment, but one possibilityu could be that, depending on the potentia buyer of the West Senecsa property ... there’s no reason we wouldn’r lease back from the ownerr atsome point. We just don’t want to have to be in the properttmanagement business.” is handling the property.
The commercial real estate firm is also helpinv Houghton search fornew sites. Mahurin said the decisionj to sell the West Senecaa site stems fromthe college’s latest strategic initiated with the arrival a few yearsx ago of college President Shirley “Part of that review was lookinv at our programs and facilities, and as the college movew to actually deepen its commitment to servic in the city of Buffalo, we found there wouldx be strategically better ways to utiliz e our resources if we weren’t necessarily being property manager s in West Seneca,” Mahurin said. The college acquireed the property in 1969 from the BuffalpoBible Institute.
Right now, it housezs the offices of Houghton’s Program for Accelerated College Education, known as which offers a management degree completion program for adult students. Students with internships or student-teaching duties in Erie County have lived inthe campus’ residential Students and alumni have known for months that the West Seneca site could go up for sale. In March, Mullen told alumnoi that the board of trustees agreerdto “investigate options for futuree use of the West Seneca campuz — including the possible sale of the propertt — if this is deemed to be the best way to stewared the resources of this property for the work of Christiaj higher education,” according to a letter to alumnki posted on the college’ss Web site.
In the same letter, Mulle wrote that “significant at the complex is necessary for expansion therw and thatthe college’s missionm is “drawing us more directly into the city of Buffalo, a significantt distance from West Seneca’ suburban location.” Mahurin said the PACE prograj will continue, and possibly expand, without disruption. “Thisz is in no way a steppintg back of commitment tothat program,” he Jim Militello said he expects lots of interest in the which includes five townhouses and a 15,800-square-fooy conference center.
It is currently zoned for banquet adult care, medical uses, church or school expansions and single- and multi-family residential development, he “There’s a great deal of flexibility,” he