Quinnipiac, WellPoint Sign Major Sale-Leaseback

Under the agreement, Quinnipiac will gain access to a vacant 100,000-sf building immediately and obtain rights to the remainder of the site over a 10-year period, university officials say. In the future, Quinnipiac will house more graduate programs at the new North Haven campus and eventually create a comprehensive Graduate Education Center for most if not all of its graduate programs. The deal would create a third campus for the university. At present, Quinnipiac has two campuses--Mount Carmel and York Hill, both in Hamden. The new North Haven campus would free up space for undergraduates at Mount Carmel.

The agreement is subject to a significant due diligence process, to begin immediately, that involves environmental audits and zoning review and approval by the Town of North Haven. No closing date has been set, notes a Quinnipiac spokesperson. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of WellPoint.

"The North Haven campus will be used as a Graduate Education Center serving the needs of our expanding graduate/adult student population," says Quinnipiac University president John L. Lahey. "Purchase of this site may well eliminate the need for Quinnipiac to construct a graduate health professions building on its York Hill campus off Sherman Avenue in Hamden."

Bushnell says the plan for the graduate health professions building, currently in the municipal approval process, would be withdrawn if the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield campus deal is finalized. The university intends to continue to pursue plans to build undergraduate residence halls, a student center and parking facilities at York Hill. On Jan. 27 the university will open its latest capital project, the $52-million TD Banknorth Sports Center, a 180,000-sf facility in York Hill that will play host to the university's basketball and ice hockey programs.

An Anthem official states that, under the lease terms being considered, Anthem employees would have the right to remain in a significant portion of the North Haven campus for up to 10 years with a minimum commitment of remaining in Buildings 3 and 4 for at least five years.