Community Colleges Benefiting From The Depressed Real Estate Market

The current real estate market crisis has left a glut of vacant properties across the United States. Taking advantage of this situation, community colleges aiming to expand have started looking favorably at such properties. Instead of constructing new buildings, they plan to acquire and simply renovate these facilities and save substantial money.

The St. Louis Community College in Missouri is doing exactly that. With an increased intake of students this year, and hence need for expansion, they have bought a vacant Circuit City beside one of their campuses. The total cost of acquisition and renovation in contrast to building new facilities will save them over $6 million.

Other community colleges such as Niagara County Community College and Green River Community College too are going for land swap deals and vacant commercial properties instead of constructing new facilities from scratch.

Carla Chance, St. Louis Community College’s Vice Chancellor for Finance sums it up well:

It’s so smart to take an asset that might otherwise have started to deteriorate, both for the college and the city. We also feel good from a green perspective.

USA Today: “Community colleges get creative to find more space”