The University of Maine will sell the Hutchinson Center, a long-time educational and events hub in Belfast.
The university system board of trustees voted Monday to authorize its sale.
The move is part of a larger effort by the university system to sell or lease underutilized real estate, said Trish Riley, board chairman.
"Demographics are changing, student needs are changing, how we teach is changing," she said at Monday's meeting. "And we need to be ready and to invest where it matters most."
University officials said degree-seeking students haven't taken classes there since the pandemic, and facility rentals haven't rebounded. It costs about $400,000 a year to maintain the facility, university officials added, though local enrollment has mostly gone online.
"We are proud of the responsive educational and enrichment offerings the University of Maine was uniquely able to provide through the Hutchinson Center for more than two decades," UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said in a statement. “The region has changed and so too have the opportunities to leverage this terrific asset to best meet the current and future needs of Waldo County and beyond."
The Hutchinson Center officially closed last year, and UMaine began soliciting purchase offers for the property. It was appraised for just more than $2.5 million last year, according to the university's real estate offer.
A group of local residents, the Future of the Hutchinson Center Steering Committee, has made its own bid to preserve the property as a community resource and educational hub in the midcoast. Judy Stein, a committee leader, said the center played an important role in the midcoast community.
"All kinds of people spoke up about being able to finish a degree there. There was a nursing program that was run there with the university and the hospital. There were community cultural events held there. The Hutchinson Center played a very important role for some years in midcoast Maine," Stein said.
University officials said they will select a buyer in the coming weeks and plan to close on the sale this fall.
