Gwynedd Mercy University sells 150 acres for $31.5 million; same land it bought for $12.1 million in 2018

Gwynedd Mercy University announced it will sell for $31.5 million a 150-plus-acre property it bought a little over three years ago — more than twice the price it paid.

The property on Sumneytown Pike in Gwynedd Valley had doubled the size of the small Catholic university’s campus when it bought the adjacent property from Merck & Co. for $12.1 million in 2018. It is selling the land to Beacon Capital Partners, a Boston real estate firm that has been looking to expand in the Philadelphia area and that has said it will use the land for “life science training” and “public spaces.”

“Just as our decision to purchase this property presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a prime piece of real estate, the decision to sell it at this time will move the university forward in achieving our vision for the future,” Gwynedd Mercy president Deanne H. D’Emilio said.

» READ MORE: Gwynedd Mercy buys Merck property, doubles size of campus

The sale represents a significant amount of money for a college that operates on a $50 million budget and has a $41 million endowment.

D’Emilio said the college would keep adding facilities and technologies to its existing campus, which will revert to 160 acres after the sale. Beacon’s emphasis on life sciences aligns with Gwynedd Mercy’s “focus on professional and health-care innovation,” she added.

The university promised more details later this month on how it would use the money.

When Gwynedd Mercy bought the property, D’Emilio said that “some of our current facilities are bursting at the seams” and that the new space, which included a 157,000-square-foot building, would offer new opportunities. At that time, the university enrolled nearly 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Enrollment is now at just over 2,300, D’Emilio said. Gwynedd Mercy, like a lot of colleges, has lost enrollment during the pandemic. But she said that’s not the reason for the sale and the college has not had layoffs or furloughs.

The university decided to sell the land after a facilities planning process that looked at space needs and interest from buyers.

“It was about looking at all these factors in the facility master planning process,” she said, “coupled with the opportunities presented. It made sense for us.”

» READ MORE: Pittsburgh lawyer/higher ed. leader named president at Gwynedd Mercy U.

Steve Purpura of Beacon said in a statement that the company would work with the township “in a thoughtful way to create a development plan” for the property. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for more details.