Three months into its post-collegiate life, the future of the vacated Iowa Wesleyan University campus is starting to take shape, with the Mount Pleasant Community School District offering to buy a portion of the 60-acre property for $1.25 million.
The school district — home to seven schools in southeast Iowa with more than 2,000 K-12 students — offered the Iowa Wesleyan board of trustees $115,000 to buy the university’s former football practice field off Maple Leaf Drive and $1.135 million for a chunk of Wesleyan’s central campus.
That central campus portion includes the Howe Student Activity Center and Ruble Arena, the John Wesley Holland Student Union, the chapel, Old Main, the PEO Memorial Building, and Pioneer Hall.
The purchase — if it goes through following building inspections and reviews — will total 13 acres, according to school Superintendent John Henriksen.
“There's opportunity for us right away on both of those properties,” he said. “We can use those practice fields immediately — it's right there next to our athletic complex already.”
Expanding its square footage will allow the school district to stop paying to use out-of-district space — like city fields, gyms and auditoriums.
“We felt the same way about the central campus,” Henriksen said. “There's opportunity immediately for us to utilize the gymnasium and the walking track and the offices that are around the gymnasium, and the chapel as well.”
Before Iowa Wesleyan closed in May due to insurmountable financial struggles, it was the second oldest university in Iowa — older than the state itself, having formed 181 years ago in 1842. Some of its buildings have earned spots in the National Register of Historic Places, like Old Main — the second Wesleyan Building, after Pioneer Hall became the first in 1843.
A restoration and renovation of the chapel, built in 1896, began in 2008 — and today, even after the university closed, it remains home to the 72-year-old Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra.
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“We definitely would like to work out an agreement with the Southeast Iowa Symphony so that could continue to be their home as well,” Henriksen said, but added the school district “does not have an auditorium.”
“We currently use the city’s … for our fine arts, our drama, plays, musicals, those kinds of things,” he said. “And we would like to use the chapel auditorium for that.”
A timeline for closing the deals depends on inspections and title reviews — which will move quicker for the football practice field.
“We think perhaps we could take possession of that in 30 days or 45 days — so Sept. 1 or middle of September,” Henriksen said. “The due diligence on the core campus is a little bit longer. It's 60 days, with an extension to 90 days.”
That could have the school district taking possession in November or December.
“Our school district, we have a great community, we have great kids, and we really do have good facilities,” Henriksen said. “We just needed some extra space.”
The district has been leasing space for its central offices for 30-plus years.
“There are really, really nice renovated offices underneath the chapel that can be put into play right away,” he said.
When Iowa Wesleyan announced in late March plans to close the campus that for generations had been central to the community of about 9,000, Henriksen said he was devastated.
“Three of my kids are graduates of Iowa Wesleyan,” he said. “So we were devastated. The community was devastated. The shock of it hung on for a while. And then we started to roll our sleeves up and say, ‘OK, what opportunities might be here?’ ”
The Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce and Area Development Commission formed an Iowa Wesleyan Task Force to brainstorm next steps for the shuttered campus — launching an “Imagine Mount Pleasant” website aimed to collecting feedback and ideas from the public.
“We don't know what Mount Pleasant looks like without Iowa Wesleyan University,” Mount Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance Executive Vice President Rachel Lindeen told The Gazette in late May.
She told The Gazette last month the “response has been great, lots of good ideas,” but didn’t provide specifics — only that the list was shared with the Wesleyan board of trustees, which maintains ownership of the campus, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which years ago lent the school $26-plus million to help it survive.
Although Wesleyan has other parcels and properties the school district hasn’t offered to buy, Henriksen said the full 60 acres isn’t something the school district wants to take on. They were interested in Wesleyan’s wrestling facility, but another entity beat them to it.
“There’s another entity that Wesleyan is already in a binding agreement with,” he said, noting he doesn’t have specifics. “So we have a backup offer on that in case that might fall through.”
And while the district has plans to immediately begin using the properties it does hope to acquire once the deals close, Henriksen said he also could see a long-term plan that involves coalescing its elementary schools in central Mount Pleasant.
“We have four elementary buildings scattered throughout the town, and we have a building in one of the small towns that’s in our district, south of here in Salem, and we could definitely envision at some point making that area our elementary campus and bringing everybody in,” he said.
“It’s kind of a long-term vision.”
www.thegazette.com
The school district — home to seven schools in southeast Iowa with more than 2,000 K-12 students — offered the Iowa Wesleyan board of trustees $115,000 to buy the university’s former football practice field off Maple Leaf Drive and $1.135 million for a chunk of Wesleyan’s central campus.
That central campus portion includes the Howe Student Activity Center and Ruble Arena, the John Wesley Holland Student Union, the chapel, Old Main, the PEO Memorial Building, and Pioneer Hall.
The purchase — if it goes through following building inspections and reviews — will total 13 acres, according to school Superintendent John Henriksen.
“There's opportunity for us right away on both of those properties,” he said. “We can use those practice fields immediately — it's right there next to our athletic complex already.”
Expanding its square footage will allow the school district to stop paying to use out-of-district space — like city fields, gyms and auditoriums.
“We felt the same way about the central campus,” Henriksen said. “There's opportunity immediately for us to utilize the gymnasium and the walking track and the offices that are around the gymnasium, and the chapel as well.”
‘Needed some extra space’
Before Iowa Wesleyan closed in May due to insurmountable financial struggles, it was the second oldest university in Iowa — older than the state itself, having formed 181 years ago in 1842. Some of its buildings have earned spots in the National Register of Historic Places, like Old Main — the second Wesleyan Building, after Pioneer Hall became the first in 1843.
A restoration and renovation of the chapel, built in 1896, began in 2008 — and today, even after the university closed, it remains home to the 72-year-old Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra.
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“We definitely would like to work out an agreement with the Southeast Iowa Symphony so that could continue to be their home as well,” Henriksen said, but added the school district “does not have an auditorium.”
“We currently use the city’s … for our fine arts, our drama, plays, musicals, those kinds of things,” he said. “And we would like to use the chapel auditorium for that.”
A timeline for closing the deals depends on inspections and title reviews — which will move quicker for the football practice field.
“We think perhaps we could take possession of that in 30 days or 45 days — so Sept. 1 or middle of September,” Henriksen said. “The due diligence on the core campus is a little bit longer. It's 60 days, with an extension to 90 days.”
That could have the school district taking possession in November or December.
“Our school district, we have a great community, we have great kids, and we really do have good facilities,” Henriksen said. “We just needed some extra space.”
The district has been leasing space for its central offices for 30-plus years.
“There are really, really nice renovated offices underneath the chapel that can be put into play right away,” he said.
'Long-term vision’
When Iowa Wesleyan announced in late March plans to close the campus that for generations had been central to the community of about 9,000, Henriksen said he was devastated.
“Three of my kids are graduates of Iowa Wesleyan,” he said. “So we were devastated. The community was devastated. The shock of it hung on for a while. And then we started to roll our sleeves up and say, ‘OK, what opportunities might be here?’ ”
The Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce and Area Development Commission formed an Iowa Wesleyan Task Force to brainstorm next steps for the shuttered campus — launching an “Imagine Mount Pleasant” website aimed to collecting feedback and ideas from the public.
“We don't know what Mount Pleasant looks like without Iowa Wesleyan University,” Mount Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance Executive Vice President Rachel Lindeen told The Gazette in late May.
She told The Gazette last month the “response has been great, lots of good ideas,” but didn’t provide specifics — only that the list was shared with the Wesleyan board of trustees, which maintains ownership of the campus, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which years ago lent the school $26-plus million to help it survive.
Although Wesleyan has other parcels and properties the school district hasn’t offered to buy, Henriksen said the full 60 acres isn’t something the school district wants to take on. They were interested in Wesleyan’s wrestling facility, but another entity beat them to it.
“There’s another entity that Wesleyan is already in a binding agreement with,” he said, noting he doesn’t have specifics. “So we have a backup offer on that in case that might fall through.”
And while the district has plans to immediately begin using the properties it does hope to acquire once the deals close, Henriksen said he also could see a long-term plan that involves coalescing its elementary schools in central Mount Pleasant.
“We have four elementary buildings scattered throughout the town, and we have a building in one of the small towns that’s in our district, south of here in Salem, and we could definitely envision at some point making that area our elementary campus and bringing everybody in,” he said.
“It’s kind of a long-term vision.”
Mount Pleasant school district looks to buy Iowa Wesleyan property
Three months into its post-collegiate life, the future of the vacated Iowa Wesleyan University campus is starting to take shape thanks to Mount Pleasant Community School District’s $1.25 million offer to buy portions of the 60-acre property.
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