Lindenwood sells former Belleville student residences to real estate company

After+2020%2C+all+undergraduate+programs+on+the+Belleville+campus+were+consolidated+to+the+St.+Charles+campus.+

Photo by Kayla Drake

After 2020, all undergraduate programs on the Belleville campus were consolidated to the St. Charles campus.

Mallary Vasquez, Reporter

Lindenwood University has sold housing from it’s Belleville campus, which closed its doors at the end of the 2020 school year.

The campus had previously owned multiple houses and apartment buildings to allow for housing for students. It totaled 54 residences, all being sold to a real estate acquisition company.

The properties sold for about $4.45 million, according to local property records.

The transactions of the housing did not include the Lindenwood Belleville campus. Lindenwood opened the estate in 2003, which was previously the site of Belleville Township High School. At the time the Belleville campus closed its doors, the campus was in need of about $25 million in repairs.

Julee Mitsler, director of communications for Lindenwood said in an email that the university sold the properties to the real estate acquisition company after the consolidation of the undergraduate residential programs to the St. Charles campus.

The residencies included apartments and traditional houses for undergraduate students to reside in while attaining their education.  Lindenwood is classified as a nonprofit organization and did not have to pay property taxes on the homes and apartments it acquired for students. 

The University consolidated the Belleville campus’s undergraduate residential programs to the Saint Charles campus in 2020, but the location still provides access to academic programing to primarily adult learners in the area.

“The site now provides access to academic programming, primarily to adult learners in the Belleville, Illinois area,” Mistler said. “For the Fall 2021 semester, Lindenwood currently has three courses scheduled to occur at the Belleville location.” 

Before closing the undergraduate programs, the Belleville location had over 1,200 undergraduate students and 165 graduate students.

Mitsler said that Lindenwood is considering opportunities to sell the Belleville property in the future.