The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Vote set for sale of UConn’s Torrington campus
The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting Monday to discuss selling its former Torrington campus.
In a memo to the board, Scott A. Jordan, UConn’s chief financial officer, said the university no longer needs the land and buildings on the campus other than the UConn Extension Center.
“The administration seeks authorization to negotiate and enter into agreements for the sale of the campus and lands,” Jordan wrote.
UConn has been considering selling the property for nearly two years.
When the site was first put on the market, the university received only one bid.
A second round of bidding garnered two interested parties, with Five Points Center for the Visual Arts Inc. in October outbidding the 22-region EdAdvance consortium.
UConn plans to sell the 5-acre core campus for $375,000 to Five Points, with the buildings going to the arts center and the property to the city of Torrington, either directly from UConn or as a transfer from Five Points after the sale.
Proceeds from the sale would be used for financial aid for UConn students from Torrington and the surrounding area.
UConn would continue to operate the Extension Center in its current building rent-free through at least 2028.
Five Points is a nonprofit organization that wants to use the Torrington site as an arts education campus for artists.
Gallery Executive Director Judy McElhone has said the proposal includes a 220-seat auditorium, a cafe, artists’ residences and outdoor classrooms for children.
The entire project comes with a $1.8 million price tag; supporters of the gallery have raised $500,000 to help buy the land and start the renovation.
The property contains three structures and is unused except for the extension center.
Beyond the UConn board, the proposed sale needs approval from the Litchfield County Superior Court since the classroom building was built in 1965 using donated funds from the estate of Julia Brooker Thompson, a Torrington resident.
As part of Thompson’s will, Thompson bequeathed the property to the university with the requirement that it be used for the creation of an educational institution.
UConn closed the Torrington campus after the spring 2016 semester based on declining enrollment, despite protests from local officials, community members and students.
The property has been appraised at $6.44 million, according to city property records, with $5.2 million of that tied up in the buildings on site.