Burlington College considered selling land within a year of property deal

A financial services company seriously considered buying about nine acres of Burlington College's prime lakefront property in the months before Jane O'Meara Sanders left the school, a local economic development official has confirmed.

Sanders, the college president, viewed the potential sale as a way to pay off about $10 million in debt, according to a memo she wrote at the time.

Sanders' original plan was to repay the debt by more than doubling student enrollment and by raising $6 million in a capital campaign. The college's financing application for the new campus made no mention of selling part of the land.

Burlington College ultimately closed under the weight of that debt in 2016, and federal authorities are now investigating the college's finances.

The fledgling deal, which would have brought about 800 jobs to Burlington, was the kind of economic opportunity that happens only once a decade, said Frank Cioffi, president of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation. The sale fell through because the site was too small for the company's needs, Cioffi said. Engineers worried that North Avenue could not handle the traffic.

More:The unraveling of Jane Sanders' Burlington College legacy

Cioffi initiated the discussion on the company's behalf sometime in 2011. Sanders, who was then president of Burlington College, agreed to meet "at the snap of a finger," and the pair trudged down into the woods to take a tour of nine acres on the southern part of the property.

"She really made a good effort to try to make this work," said Cioffi, who said he could not disclose the company's name.

Burlington College incurred $10 million in debt when it bought the new 32-acre campus from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in December 2010, and Sanders was exploring a sale of some of the land to repay the loans.

Sanders described the possibility in her final memo to the Burlington College board of trustees when she was removed from leadership in October 2011. Several former trustees contacted recently by the Burlington Free Press said they did not recall discussing the opportunity, or remembered it only vaguely.

"The board was scrambling at that time to figure out its financial health," said former trustee David V. Dunn, speaking of the period immediately after Sanders left.

Cioffi said the Burlington College board of trustees did not stay involved in the discussion after Sanders left because the financial services firm lost interest in the Burlington College land. The company also considered Technology Park in South Burlington, Cioffi said, but ultimately decided not to move to Vermont at all.

Over the next nearly six years, as the college's debt grew more burdensome, Burlington College became willing to sell off more and more of its campus.

Sanders was willing to sell nine acres in 2011. Her successor, President Christine Plunkett, proposed selling 16 acres, or half of the campus, to developer Eric Farrell in October 2013. The following year, Interim President Michael Smith unveiled a plan to sell 25 acres to Farrell. By the time the deal closed in February 2015, Farrell purchased 27.5 acres. Farrell paid $7.65 million. 

Burlington College closed in May 2016 under the weight of debt, retaining only one 1940-era building on the property. That, too, was sold to People's United Bank at a foreclosure auction this summer. Farrell is building a housing development on the former campus.

More:Sold: Final piece of Burlington College

Contact April McCullum at 802-660-1863 or amccullum@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @April_McCullum. 
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