UMaine System close to selling off its Belfast center

The University of Maine System will soon make a final decision on whether to sell off its remote learning facility in Belfast, though it’s so far unclear whether a buyer is lined up or how much money the system could make on the deal.

The system’s board of trustees will vote Monday on whether to approve the sale of the shuttered Hutchinson Center, after a committee recently endorsed selling the property. The system had first put the center up for sale, lease or other uses last winter.

The system did not indicate whether it has a buyer lined up for the sale, which could be announced as soon as late July and finalized in the fall. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A group of Belfast-area residents called the Committee for the Future of the Hutchinson Center has made a bid for the facility, which has an appraised value of $2.52 million. The group hopes to reopen the center and continue to run it as a space for cultural and educational events, and to provide on-site higher education.

On Thursday, founding member Judy Stein said she’ll be tuning into the meeting of the trustees next week.

“We are not in the business of running higher education, so we’d need to work with an institution that wanted to share this space, and we spoke with several that were interested,” Stein said.

The UMaine System is working to sell the center as part of a larger effort to dispose of underused resources and put the revenue towards ensuring the affordability of its programs.

“Consistent with trends across the University of Maine System and higher education nationally, enrollment for courses at the center has shifted online and no degree-seeking students have taken classes in-person there since 2020. Additionally, facility rentals did not rebound to pre-pandemic levels,” the system said in a statement.

The system will also vote Monday on whether to sell two parcels at its Farmington campus totaling 12.5 acres, as well as a house that’s used for office space and a commercial property, which it says would save the campus $35,000 in annual operating costs and allow it to construct a new facilities management building.

The Hutchinson Center was built in 2000, and seven years later the Bank of America gifted it to the University of Maine. A $885,000 expansion was made in 2009.

In March, state legislation that would have transferred the Hutchinson Center to the city of Belfast failed to advance out of a committee.