Miles Faculty to purchase Birmingham-Southern campus

Miles Faculty has signed an settlement to purchase the 192-acre campus of Birmingham-Southern Faculty—which closed abruptly earlier this 12 months resulting from monetary points—Al.com reported.

Although the acquisition value was not disclosed, the campus was lately valued at $65 million. Alabama A&M College had additionally expressed curiosity in shopping for it, reportedly providing $52 million for the positioning in Could after which $65.5 million in June, native media reported.

Miles, a traditionally Black school, is situated lower than 10 miles from Birmingham-Southern.

BSC’s sudden closure got here after officers undertook a yearlong effort to maintain the campus open, which included laws proposed by BSC alumni to create a distinctive state mortgage program for struggling personal schools. Nevertheless, Alabama treasurer Younger Boozer III, who oversaw mortgage purposes for this system, denied BSC’s request for $27 million. Birmingham Southern officers accused Boozer of undermining the Legislature and appearing in dangerous religion in denying the mortgage; he argued that BSC represented a “horrible credit score threat” and lacked collateral. The school closed a number of months after the mortgage was denied.

Birmingham-Southern officers mentioned in a press release they have been happy with the sale of campus.

“Our hope has been to discover a purchaser whose mission paralleled BSC’s mission of teaching younger folks for lives of service and significance, and whose presence on the Hilltop would additionally profit the encompassing communities who’ve been such good neighbors to BSC for greater than 100 years,” the school’s president, Daniel B. Coleman, mentioned in a press release. “With its roots within the Methodist custom of service and its dedication to getting ready younger folks for lives of management, Miles Faculty suits that description. We’ll proceed to work diligently with [Miles College] President Bobbie Knight and her group to make sure a clean pathway to closing the sale.”