"I see it as a very long-term investment that the College made," said Treasurer Peter Shea, who attended the auction and posted the winning bid. Although the College does not have plans to develop the land, the additional acreage keeps many options open for the College. "It is roughly 37 acres of land that is surrounded by College property," Shea said.
According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Amherst Golf Club, owned by the College, borders the purchased land to the south and other College land borders the purchase to the north. Gardens and a 14-room house built in 1830 are located on the property. The land, assessed by the town at $664,800, could have been developed into 30 residential homes or 50 condominium clusters.
Although ten people posted the $100,000 required to place a bid, according to the Gazette, only two individuals other than Shea actually bid on the land. One bidder, Ben Surner, said he would have considered a cluster development on the property. The other bidder, Barry Roberts, who posted the second highest bid, said he thought about developing the land into residential homes.
College officials did not want to see the land developed. "We purchased it at auction and the other [potential] purchasers were developers," Shea said. "We did not want to see it developed at this point."
The College had considered purchasing the land in the past, following the death of land owner Arthur Hazard Dakin. According to the Gazette, after Dakin died in 2001, Fleet Bank, which managed Dakin's trust, approached the College about buying the property. The bank put the land up for auction after the College and Fleet failed to reach an agreement on the price of the land. "We're really pleased with the sale's result," Timothy Hannon of Fleet's trust real estate department told the Gazette. "At the same time, we're really happy to see the College get the property."
The property is not entirely new to the College. Dakin's father, who purchased the land, then a farm, in the early 1900s, was a trustee of the College in the 19th century, according to the Gazette.