The “For Sale” sign remains at Birmingham-Southern College after a deal to sell its now-shuttered campus to another historically Black college in Alabama fell through on Monday, officials said.
Miles College made three requests to extend the sale deadline, which expired at 3 p.m., Birmingham-Southern said in a news release. The private liberal arts college said its 192-acre campus is valued at $65 million.
The 168-year-old Methodist-affiliated school closed on May 31 after years of financial difficulties. Legislation to secure a taxpayer-backed loan for the college had stalled in the Alabama Statehouse.
BSC had about 1,000 students and was located on the west side of Birmingham, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Miles, another private liberal arts school with ties to the Methodist church.
Birmingham-Southern said it has great respect for Miles and “appreciates both the shared roots and the alignment of missions,” however the school's board needed to meet commitments to lenders and other creditors and sell the campus "as quickly as possible.”
An email to Miles College seeking comment was not immediately returned. With the collapse of the deal, there’s no word on where this leaves the purchase of the BSC campus.
Miles and BSC executed the purchase agreement on Sept. 25 with a closing date for Oct. 25, according to the news release. Miles asked for an extension to Nov. 25. Ten days before that deadline, BSC declined a second extension request to Dec. 24.
A number of small private colleges nationwide are struggling with a declining number of traditional college-aged students and competition from larger, richer institutions.
