Campus of former Unity College going up for sale

The campus of Unity Environmental University in Unity is seen on June 16. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel file

The Waldo County campus of Unity Environmental University is up for sale about three years after college officials first floated the possibility.

A&G Real Estate Partners announced Wednesday that the school, formerly known as Unity College, was accepting offers for the 225-acre property.

Unity Environmental University’s board of trustees has been weighing options for the largely vacant campus for years. In the most recent development, nonprofits and immigrant groups were hoping to create housing for asylum seekers in the empty dormitories – but money and concerns from townspeople posed a barrier.

A&G has not published the listing price for the campus. But according to Mainebiz, the town assessed the campus property at $26.8 million.

In a news release announcing the campus listing, the real estate firm said the campus facilities are well maintained, with buildings totaling more than 100,000 square feet of space and 600 beds, including residence halls with suites, family apartments and cottages and independent homes.

“The presence of multiple cafeterias, in addition to those residences, means this property is a strong fit for high-quality senior housing,” Emilio Amendola, co-president of A&G and head of the New York-based firm’s real estate sales division, said in the release. “The bucolic setting makes it the perfect place for a camp, spiritual retreat or recreational center, and the high-speed Internet access and well-equipped science labs also offer the possibility of a remote research facility. It’s quite a mix.”

President Melik Peter Khoury said in a statement Friday that the college is “currently working on three tracks in parallel.”

“Whether that be bringing in enough students in residence so that the campus is not underutilized, leasing space on campus, or potentially selling. Our University is in a bit of a different position than many colleges that are selling property across the country, because we are growing so fast in other areas and our institution is very healthy as a whole,” Khoury said. “This growth allows us not to rush the process of the 90 Quaker Hill campus, and take a look at multiple tracks at the same time to best maximize this underutilized property.”

Daniel McCormick, the vice chairman of the Unity Board of Selectmen, declined to comment when contacted on Friday.

The choice to put the Unity campus on the market has been years in the making amid sweeping changes for Unity Environmental College.

The school first launched a remote education program in 2016, when it was still Unity College. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Maine colleges began welcoming students back to campus for the fall 2020 semester. But the Unity administration chose to maintain a fully remote program for the entire 2020-21 school year.

In August 2020, officials announced that the university was shifting its program to embrace hybrid learning and laid off 15% of its staff. That’s when officials first announced they were mulling over the sale of the campus in Unity, even as they cautioned a sale was not imminent and President Melik Peter Khoury repeatedly said he did not want to sell the campus.

The school shifted its headquarters to a new campus for environmental professions programs at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester in 2021. Earlier this year, the school was renamed Unity Environmental University. Meanwhile, enrollment has been on the upswing with 5,000 full-time students across all of its programs, the school said.

Even so, the Waldo County campus has been fairly empty. Only about 50 students are on the Unity campus at a time while several buildings have been largely vacant.

With that open space in mind, the Greater Portland Council of Governments began promoting an idea to house asylum seekers on the Unity campus in early July. The proposal was an attempt at relieving a housing crisis for over 1,600 asylum seekers who have come to Portland from Jan. 1 through July.

Despite the property being listed for sale, the council is not giving up on its plans. The council is still imploring the college to house the asylum seekers on the largely vacant campus and negotiations are ongoing, council spokesperson Tom Bell said Friday.

“That Unity wanted to sell the campus is not a surprise to us, nor does it change anything,” Bell said in a statement. “This has been part of the university’s discussions for years now, and we were aware that they had started working with a realtor a few months ago.”

While the college is still hoping for a buyer to purchase the property, Bell says the council is still looking to house people in the interim.

“We are exactly where we always have been with it,” Bell said. “It is a good proposal that makes financial sense and that could have great benefits for the local community and the state.”

Khoury, the college president, previously had said he’d consider a proposal involving asylum seekers.

The council’s idea received pushback from some officials and residents in Unity, who were concerned that the influx of people would overwhelm the town. But money has posed the largest obstacle. The plan would need $10 million, $7.8 million of which the council proposed to pay to Unity Environmental University. But MaineHousing spokesman Scott Thistle said in mid-July that there was no federal funding immediately available and no reservoir of state money to draw from.

Morning Sentinel reporter Dylan Tusinski contributed reporting.