UL to close remaining $12M deficit by selling properties. See which ones could be first.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is expected to sell multiple properties in an effort to close its remaining $12 million deficit as the university’s system board comes closer to naming its next president.
Interim President Ramesh Kolluru, who is expected to be appointed as the permanent president Friday after being named the lone finalist for the position this week, recently asked the UL System Board to approve the sale of five properties. They include:
-
a 600-acre experimental research farm in St. Martinville
-
a 50-acre ecology center near Carencro
-
a residential home near UL’s research park campus
-
a small, empty lot near the main campus
-
a fraternity house near UL’s sports and entertainment plaza
Addresses for the properties are included in documents for Thursday’s regular meeting of the UL System Board. Kolluru asked the board’s facilities planning committee to approve the advertising and auctioning of the first four properties. He asked the committee to approve the sale of the final property to the fraternity’s alumni association.
The Cade experimental research farm at 1178 W.J. Bernard Drive in St. Martinville includes pasture land, agriculture land, wetland habitats, a coastal wetland research laboratory and a seed bank across 600 acres. It is unclear if the university plans to sell the entire property and end operations there, or sell a portion of the property. An appraisal is currently pending.
The university’s ecology center at 703 Thoroughbred Drive in north Lafayette includes a 15,000-square-foot facility with office, laboratory, classroom, workshop, kitchen, shower and dormitory areas; a one-acre greenhouse complex, 46 acres of irrigated field space, two independent well systems, vehicles and other equipment.
The estimated property value is $2.1 million, according to board documents. It is not clear if the university would relocate ecology operations elsewhere if it sells the property, which is in an area that has been developed into residential neighborhoods in recent years.
The home at 518 Robert Lee Circle is situated in a neighborhood off Cajundome Boulevard near Devalcourt Street by the university’s research park. The estimated property value is $350,000, according to board documents.
The small, empty lot at 509 E. University Ave. is surrounded by homes on either side and is situated between McKinley and Roosevelt streets right off the main campus. An appraisal is pending. The property most recently sold in 2019 for $110,000, according to Lafayette Tax Assessor records.
The university is asking for the board’s approval to sell the Sigma Nu fraternity house and all fixtures on the lot at 107 Glenn Abel Drive, better known as Fraternity Row, to the local chapter’s alumni association for about $112,000, according to board documents.
The proposed sale is only for the building and its improvements, so the university retains land ownership rights that align with UL’s “long-term campus planning and asset management objectives,” according to a letter Kolluru wrote to UL System President Rick Gallot that’s included in board documents.
Kolluru said this week that the university has reduced its $50 million total deficit — $25 million of which represented a recurring structural deficit — to about $12 million. A UL spokesperson on Wednesday said the $12 million deficit is a combination of the existing and structural deficit.
Last December, Kolluru told a packed town hall meeting that he expected to end the fiscal year on June 30 with a $10.5 million deficit. During interviews this week, those projections changed: Kolluru said he expects to end the fiscal year in the black.
Instead of turning to more budget and staff cuts, Kolluru said in a Tuesday interview that he will focus on revenue generation in the form of property sales and a fundraising campaign to close the remaining gap by the end of the fiscal year.
“We are going to the board for approval for the disposal of some properties,” Kolluru said. “The appraisals are being done so that we can make sure that those are current. And if we were to exercise that option, we have the approvals from the board to use as one of the tools in the toolkit.”
The Acadiana Advocate filed a public records request Feb. 11 with UL for all appraisals done this year on properties owned by the university, but UL has not yet released the records.
UL spokesperson Eric Maron said the university is only getting appraisals and seeking permission to sell at this point. It is unclear what would happen to staff at the research farm and ecology center should those properties sell.
“These are properties they are considering, but no decision has been made,” Maron said. “This is the first step if they do decide to sell the properties. They’re still being evaluated, and nothing’s been decided on if they’re going to sell any or part of them.”
The UL System Board’s regular meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday on the McNeese State University campus in Lake Charles. A special meeting of the board will happen Friday at the UL System office in Baton Rouge, where board members are expected to approve Kolluru as the new president of the system’s largest university.
