Hampshire College Trustees Put Campus Up for Sale

Hampshire College trustees placed the campus up for sale on May 20. The entire 800-acre campus is to be sold to pay off approximately $25 million in debt, following the announcement on April 14 that the institution will close permanently at the end of 2026.

The sale is being managed by Region, a commercial land broker in Western Massachusetts. The campus has been divided into 23 discrete parcels, which include academic, residential, and farm assets, hiking trails, solar fields, and open space. The core campus includes five dormitories, five academic buildings, two recreational facilities, a farm, a yurt, the Early Learning Center, and the R.W. Kern Center. Of the 23 certified “living buildings” — fully sustainable structures — in the world, two are on the Hampshire campus: the Kern Center and the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, which holds a 95-year lease from the college signed in 2015.

The Eric Carle Museum and the Yiddish Book Center own their own buildings and land, but access runs through college property. The Yiddish Book Center uses some of the campus dormitories for its summer programs. The Bay Road Tennis Club uses the multi-sport building, and the Amherst Recreation Department has used the swimming pool for some of its aquatics programs.

Hampshire’s board is open to proposals that include only individual parcels, phased transactions over time, or larger campus-wide options, president Jennifer Chrisler and board chair Jose Fuentes said in a Tuesday email to the college community.

Of the 800 acres up for sale, roughly two-thirds are in Amherst, with the remainder in Hadley. Most of the Amherst acreage is zoned educational and is therefore tax-exempt, and can only be used for educational purposes unless the zoning is changed. Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman has conveyed the town’s interest in working with developers to rezone the land into taxable categories, particularly toward the development of housing.

Timeline Unclear
The board apparently already has in hand some proposals to purchase parts of the campus. It has not indicated how long the offer window will remain open, or whether it will prioritize the sale of large tracts over individual parcels. The board did indicate that it wants to proceed on an “expedited timeline.”

While neither the board nor the broker has shared information about the nature or number of proposals received, at least four nonprofit entities have expressed interest in acquiring substantial portions of the campus and in continuing to use the land to advance Hampshire’s mission in some form. They are Hampshire Next; Kestrel Land Trust and The Trustees of Reservations; Jerome Segal, representing his proposed Advanced Hampshire Institute for Peace, Plain Living and Conflict Resolution Training; and Renewable Nations and the Renewable Nations Institute. Apparently none of these organizations has yet made a purchase offer, though Hampshire Next has already raised pledges of $1.6 million toward retiring the debt in just a few weeks, and proposes to raise $20 million or more by the time the bonds come due in September 2026.

Read More

Hampshire College Initiates Sale of Land and Assets (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Region’s Hampshire College Sales Prospectus