UMaine System will soon sell Belfast learning center

The board of trustees of the University of Maine System has voted to sell off its former remote learning center in Belfast.

The board voted unanimously Monday morning to approve the sale of the Hutchinson Center. The center was first advertised as up for sale, lease or other uses last winter, but Monday’s vote was required to approve the option of selling it.

A buyer of the facility will be selected and announced within the next few weeks, according to a press release from the system. The sale would then be finalized in the fall.

The 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.

Many Belfast area residents and officials have pushed the system to reopen the Hutchinson Center, which has an appraised value of $2.52 million. After it went up for sale or lease, a group called the Committee for the Future of the Hutchinson Center made a bid to purchase it. The group hopes to run it as a space for cultural and educational events, and to provide on-site higher education.

The Hutchinson Center was built in 2000 by the credit card company MBNA. Seven years later, after MBNA was acquired by Bank of America, it gifted the center 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.