http://www.thebaratfoundation.org/documents/AP%20Campus%20Purchase.htm
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
January 25, 2006 Wednesday 9:52 PM GMT
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL
Developer, foundation buy former Barat College
campus
DATELINE: LAKE FOREST Ill.
A local developer and nonprofit foundation have teamed up to buy the
now-shuttered Barat College campus from DePaul University, the parties
announced Wednesday.
Development plans for the 23-acre campus here have not been finalized, but the
deal between the Barat Education Foundation and Barat Woods LLC includes
condominiums at Old Main, the former liberal arts school's original structure,
and protecting the large south lawn, officials said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed Wednesday. A foundation spokeswoman and DePaul University
spokeswoman both declined to give details of the sale price.
"The Foundation has spent the last two years searching for a partner that
would embrace our mission of education, social responsibility and community
participation," foundation chairman Sheila Smith said in a statement.
"We are absolutely thrilled that this collaboration will allow the
Foundation to continue the Barat legacy on campus."
The foundation was formed in 2000 when Barat College's
alliance with DePaul was announced. It offers scholarships, a center for
women's leadership and a grant program "to maintain the Barat
legacy."
The agreement with Barat Woods, managed by developer Robert Shaw, was reached
after more than a year of talks between DePaul, the city of Lake Forest and a public task force,
officials said.
"DePaul is proud of its collaboration with the city to envision a high
quality, low impact concept for the neighborhood, and particularly pleased that
BEF's involvement signals a continuity of concern for the city of Lake Forest
and its residents," DePaul's president, the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider,
said in a statement.
Faced with dwindling enrollment, tens of millions of dollars in needed repairs
and a small endowment, DePaul trustees voted to close Barat's doors last June,
a year after celebrating the school's 100th anniversary in this suburb north of
Chicago.
-Paul Gerth
Where is John Galt?