(Bloomberg) — A Boston suburb’s housing authority is planning to buy the campus of Eastern Nazarene College, which closed last year, for $21 million.
The Quincy Housing Authority, a non-profit that works with the city of Quincy to address local housing needs, plans to develop affordable senior housing and renovate residential properties on the campus to provide opportunities for first-time home buyers. The sale is pending approval by the attorney general of Massachusetts.
Located within Quincy, Eastern Nazarene College shuttered after experiencing years of declining enrollment and “significant financial headwinds,” according to its board of trustees. That left behind a 27-acre campus in a historic, tree-lined neighborhood about 10 miles south of Boston.
Abandoned college campuses are becoming more common across the country. More than 50 US colleges have closed or merged since 2020, collapsing under shifting demographics and mounting debt. The distress has put thousands of acres of classrooms, dorms and athletic facilities on the real estate market.
In Quincy, the housing authority plans come after multiple other deals fell through, including one from an Eastern Nazarene alum and real estate developer who wanted to build hundreds of housing units on the campus.
Quincy Mayor Tom Koch also wanted the city to buy the campus, but city council members balked at taking on debt to fund the purchase and voted down the proposal.
“I was disappointed in the outcome,” Koch said at a Saturday event announcing the sale. “Once the proposal was rejected, we went back to work, rolled up our sleeves and said ‘okay, how can we make sure that we have local control on this?’”
James Marathas, the housing authority’s executive director, said the mayor’s vision for the campus aligned with his organization’s goals and “was an opportunity we could not ignore.”
“Our goal is not to build 600 rental apartments or destroy the tremendous benefits that this property offers to the city,” he said. “Our goal is to work with the community and develop a realistic low-density housing opportunity that makes sense for this location.”
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