Speculation on the so-far undisclosed buyer includes major local land assemblers such as Cousins Properties Inc., Pope & Land Enterprises Inc. and the Barry Cos. The sale has been simmering for the past three years, brokers familiar with the transaction principals, tell GlobeSt.com.
The transaction is expected to set off a firestorm of local controversy with several neighborhood and environmental organizations pressing the 169-year-old, 1,195-student liberal arts school to hold off on the deal until a plan can be worked out with the developer to save a portion of the tract as a public park, brokers following the deal tell GlobeSt.com.
But the dirt involved in this undisturbed forest off Peachtree Road and inside the Interstate 285 boundary is considered too valuable, at about $11.48 per sf, for a developer to donate it to the public domain, brokers tell GlobeSt.com. The main campus is at 4484 Peachtree Road NE.
Oglethorpe officials have told local groups the school doesn't need the 24 acres because it already has 105 acres of contiguous campus land for future expansion. Brokers in a position to know say the school is selling the land to grow its current endowment total of $23 million that will be used to build new student dormitories for next academic year.
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