Newbury College’s Brookline Campus Hits Market For $40M
A financially struggling liberal arts school in Brookline has put the for-sale sign up on its nearly 8-acre campus.
Newbury College announced in December it would join the growing list of small liberal arts colleges in Greater Boston that have closed in recent years. The Brookline college will close after the spring semester this year, and Boston brokers expect its Fisher Hill neighborhood campus to sell as soon as this summer.
Colliers International has listed the campus for $40M, Curbed Boston reports. There have already been several interested buyers since Newbury’s December announcement, and town officials told the Boston Globe last month the local government may be interested in buying the campus.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey would have to approve any sale due to the college’s nonprofit status.
Eight colleges have closed or been folded into bigger schools in eastern Massachusetts in the last decade. Newbury College had even accepted students from the nearby and recently shuttered Mount Ida College before announcing it, too, was shutting down.
A 2016 report from Ernst & Young found 800 small liberal arts colleges across the U.S. are at risk of closing, largely due to diminishing endowments and students preferring to attend bigger colleges.
