How did Lindenwood University get its Belleville campus for $1?
When Lindenwood University opened its east-side campus at the former Belleville Township High School West in 2003, it only had to pay $1 to get the deed.
Now, nearly 20 years later, the university stands to get $3 million by selling the property back to the city.
Aldermen on Monday authorized city officials to complete negotiations to buy the campus at 2600 W. Main St., including the nearby dormitories built by Lindenwood.
Mayor Patty Gregory said she could not release details on what the city plans to do with the campus since the purchase has not been finalized.
Here’s what you need to know about the original deal to sell the campus to Lindenwood for a mere buck:
Lindenwood University signed a three-way development agreement with Belleville Township High School District 201 and the city of Belleville on March 23, 2003.
City leaders were looking for a way to find a tenant for the Belleville West campus because a new Belleville West High School was being built near the intersection of Frank Scott Parkway and Illinois 15.
In an effort to get Lindenwood to establish a college in Belleville, aldermen agreed to give the St. Charles, Missouri-based university incentives valued at $3.3 million and sell the property to Lindenwood for $1.
Those incentives included $3 million that would be given to the school in annual payments of $150,000 for 20 years. An additional $300,000 would be given to the school by 2004 for asbestos abatement.
City Attorney Garrett Hoerner said the annual payments had stopped recently but the exact amount given to Lindenwood was not immediately available Tuesday.
To get the $1 sales price and incentives, Lindenwood was required to invest $1.4 million in the campus by 2008. That included $1 million for capital improvements on the campus and $400,000 to provide educational technology and equipment to serve students attending courses on the site.
Lindenwood also agreed to give the city an annual payment in lieu of taxes. This payment was supposed to be $10,000 in 2003, $15,000 in 2004 and then $20,000 a year as long as the school received the annual $150,000 payment from the city.
By the time Lindenwood announced in May 2019 that it was ending its full-time student program, it had spent tens of millions in improving the campus.
Gregory said the improvements were worth $42 million.
The three-way development agreement in 2003 called for District 201 to sell the campus to the city for $1 and for the city to then sell the property to Lindenwood for that same price.
District 201 also was allowed to keep district administrative offices on the school grounds for a discounted rate of $2.50 per square foot per year on an office building and $5 per square foot per year in the library, according to the agreement.
The school district has since established its administrative offices in a building at 920 N. Illinois St. in Belleville.
Lindenwood agreement set to be terminated
The proposal for the city to buy back the campus includes a provision for the 2003 development agreement to be terminated.
St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern was the mayor of Belleville at the time the development agreement was signed. He said in 2003 that the city had been in talks with Lindenwood and District 201 since December 2001.
The men’s dormitory built by Lindenwood was named after Kern’s father, Fred J. Kern, in 2014 after the Kern family donated an undisclosed amount to assist the college.
Belleville’s former economic development director, Mike Malloy, told the News-Democrat in 2003 that he thought the incentives given to Lindenwood in the development agreement were fair and would be a good investment for the city.
“I don’t know if you can even put a dollar figure on the financial impact that a university has on a city,” Malloy said at the time.
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