Colleges & Universities
In an era of budget constraints, colleges and universities are increasingly evaluating strategies to monetize their real estate assets. Common questions include:
Which assets in our portfolio are critical to the college’s mission, and which are surplus properties that could be monetized through a sale or ground lease?
What is the best process for selecting a developer to deliver housing or commercial uses on college-owned land? When partnering with a developer, what financial structure makes the most sense for the college?
Is there a way to reduce operating costs by decreasing the college’s footprint in leased real estate?
Recent Examples of Our Work with College & University Clients
Piedmont University, a liberal arts institution founded in 1897 and based in Demorest, Georgia, has had a satellite campus in Athens since 1996. The University purchased a former church property for its satellite campus, in 2006. The changing landscape in higher education led the University to hire our firm in September 2019. Our charge was to sell the satellite campus and identify a suitable new location to lease. This would allow the University to reinvest capital from the sale and create a better learning environment for the students and faculty in Athens. Working in concert with architecture firm ASD|SKY, we concluded that the University had three times more space than it needed moving forward. Our firm studied the local market to determine the potential interest level in the satellite campus, as well as its probable value. We also evaluated relocation candidates for leased space.
In June 2021, the University sold its satellite campus to the Clarke County School District, which is locating its administrative offices there. Piedmont University moved six blocks down Prince Avenue, where it leased a new 32,700-square-foot building.
Haddow & Company worked with the land planning firm of Foresite Group, Inc., to evaluate the revenue-generating potential of Auburn University’s surplus property holdings. The university owns approximately 28,000 acres throughout the State of Alabama. Our work was conducted in two stages. Phase I was to identify properties with revenue-generating potential that were not restricted from development or earmarked for academic or research purposes. Phase II included a more in-depth analysis of individual properties and the formulation of an action plan.
