Penn State is selling its Wilkes-Barre and Shenango campuses
The Wilkes-Barre campus will become event space for a nearby golf course and educational programming, while the Shenango campus will be used for educational, cultural and workforce training purposes.
Pennsylvania State University’s board of trustees agreed Friday to sell two of its closing Commonwealth campuses to developers for more than $6 million.
Plans call for the Wilkes-Barre campus in Northeastern Pennsylvania to be developed into event and conference space for a nearby golf course and space for educational programming, while the Shenango campus in Northwestern Pennsylvania will be used for educational, cultural and workforce training purposes. The Shenango campus enrolled 309 students in 2024 and the Wilkes-Barre campus 329 students, according to a Penn State report on the closures.
Sara Thorndike, Penn State’s senior vice president for finance and business and chief financial officer, told trustees at a committee meeting Thursday that discussions continue on the future use of the other five campuses: Dubois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington and York. The seven closing campuses are spread from Northeastern Pennsylvania to Western Pennsylvania. The campuses in the Philadelphia region — Abington, Brandywine, and the graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley — are not impacted.
» READ MORE: PSU board approves closure of seven Commonwealth campuses by a 25-8 vote
“Every campus is on its own path and own time line,” Thorndike said of the closing campuses. “Our goal is to find a positive path forward.”
Penn State in May 2025 voted to close the seven campuses at the end of the 2026-27 academic year due to precipitous enrollment declines, marking the largest remake of the Pennsylvania flagship university’s Commonwealth campus system in its history.
Since then, Penn State has been conducting meetings at each of the campuses with elected officials and others in the community to hear concerns about future uses, Thorndike said.
The board approved the sale of the 13-acre, 12-building Shenango campus in Mercer County to JCL Development LLC for $1 million. It will be used for education, workforce training, economic development and cultural enrichment, Thorndike said.
Penn State Wilkes-Barre’s 57-acre, 17-building campus in Luzerne County will be sold to HGC Development LLC for $5.25 million. HGC is a subsidiary of the Huntsville Golf Club, which is next to the campus. The property will be used for event space “complementary to the golf club,” the university said, and educational purposes, including a planned partnership with the nearby Misericordia University.
Thorndike said the university considered community benefits, appraised values, deferred maintenance and the costs Penn State would have to pay if it held on to the campuses. Though both offers were below the value of the properties, she said the university determined they were the best overall offers.
“Both proposals outline a vision for preserving the community-facing qualities of these properties while building on the educational impact the campuses have had for decades, and that’s an outcome we’re pleased to see reflected in each plan,” Renata Engel, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor, said in a statement.
