Fancy UConn house is up for sale
In 2013 the UConn Foundation bought a grand 1926 residence in Hartford’s posh West End for use by the school’s then-president, Susan Herbst, to dine with prospective major donors who could boost the university’s endowment. Herbst also would stay there if she needed to be around Hartford.
But, seven years later, the stratagem of maintaining the outpost among Hartford’s mansions and boulevards has run its course — and 61 Scarborough
St., with its 12 rooms, 5,985 square feet of space, and even an indoor fountain, went up for sale this week.
The nonprofit foundation paid $660,000 in cash seven years ago, and it has spent $262,000 on renovations.
Now it is asking $875,000, in a heated-up Hartford-area real estate market, for the three-story, seven-bedroom dwelling that’s either a small mansion or big house, depending which Google results you go by.
The Zillow.com real estate website describes it as a “stately Federal Style Colonial ... situated on a highly sought after street in Hartford’s Historic West End,” and the listing includes 40 photos of the interior and exterior.
Foundation representatives were unwilling to say that owning the house hadn’t panned out as well as originally hoped.
But their explanations appeared to boil down to seeing too little upside in holding onto the house when weighed against costs of taxes and maintenance, and the fact that the coronavirus has prevented it from being used for gatherings during most of the past year.
What happened to the idea, expressed in 2013 by the foundation’s then-president, Josh Newton, that public universities must step up appeals to private donors — and that Hartford is a prime location in which “to use the president more strategically” in fundraising?
Well, Newton’s gone — he returned in 2018 to Emory University, where he came from — and the foundation’s current president/CEO, Scott Roberts, said Thursday: “The property was successful for holding gatherings with alumni, donors, and supporters, but the frequency of its use, increasing maintenance costs over time, and limited
capacity for larger scale events led to a decision to sell the property.”
Herbst is also gone as president — she’s now a professor at UConn’s Stamford campus, teaching one course a semester — and her successor, President Thomas C. Katsouleas, “was asked and agrees with the UConn Foundation that the house should be sold,” said university spokesperson Stephanie Reitz. (Katsouleas also had used the Scarborough Street house since becoming president 16 months ago, she said.)
As to the coronavirus pandemic: “No in-person gatherings have been possible there for almost a year and this is likely to continue to be the case through at least the fall of 2021 and potentially longer,” said Jennifer Huber, the foundation’s director of communications and media relations. “And even when in-person indoor gatherings are possible
once again, some may still not be comfortable attending them.”
The purchase of the Hartford house was funded by donations to the foundation, not taxpayer money
or student fees or tuition. Although the foundation is a tax-exempt charity, Huber said, “we did not seek property tax exemption, which would have potentially taken the
property off the tax rolls of Hartford. The average annual costs ... are $17,308 in property tax, $21,428 in maintenance costs (upkeep, landscaping, and cleaning), $8,681 in utilities, and $5,486 in insurance. Renovation costs totaled $262,192.”
When the house is sold, net proceeds “will be directed toward expenses related to University-provided housing for the University president or other purposes such as student support designated by the donors,” Huber said.
“The donors’ gifts used to purchase the home will be used according to their wishes to continue supporting UConn. We are grateful for their generosity and loyalty to the University,” said Roberts, the foundation president. “We are committed to strengthening alumni ties to UConn, respecting the wishes of donors, and supporting the university’s mission.”
The UConn Foundation reported $89.5 million in new donations in the recently completed fiscal year, according to its 2020 annual report. That represented a 25% increase over the prior year. The university’s endowment has grown from $312.9 million to $476.6 million over the past decade, according to the report.
Herbst stepped down as president of the university on July 31, 2019, and was allowed to take a one-year sabbatical at a salary of $711,072, the same as she made at the end of her eighth and final year in the top job.
Now her annual salary is about $319,000 as tenured professor of political science at Stamford. That amount is based on a “Post Presidency Benefits” section in her 2015 amended employment agreement with UConn — guaranteeing that as long as she teaches, she’ll be tied for the highest faculty salary at any UConn campus except the Farmington health center (where medical school faculty salaries are higher).