BH Properties Buys Holy Names University Campus for $65M

A Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm is buying the 60-acre campus in Oakland that has been the occupied by Holy Name University since 1868.

The deal to sell the campus was completed three weeks before the property was scheduled to go on the selling block at a foreclosure auction on June 30.

BH Properties has purchased the campus for $65M, about $5M less than the asking price the Catholic college was seeking when it listed the property in March, according to a report in the San Francisco Business Times. CBRE marketed the property on behalf of Holy Names.

BH said in a statement last week that it intends to lease the space at the campus to other educational operators.

“There are many organizations in dire need of educational space and we believe there will be significant interest in leasing this site,” Andy Van Tuyle, a senior managing director for BH, said in the statement.

In an interview with Real Estate Capital last year, BH President Jim Brooks said the company was closely monitoring distressed properties around the country, with a strategy of purchasing delinquent loans from lenders as a prelude to acquiring the property.

The campus, located at 3500 Mountain Boulevard in the Oakland Hills neighborhood, encompasses 15 buildings that include a gymnasium, performing arts center, chapel, library, 30 classrooms and housing for 450 students.

The college ceased operations last month after its spring semester. Earlier this year, Holy Names defaulted on a $49M loan from Dallas-based lender Preston Hollow Community Capital.

In an unusual twist—in a state that has declared an affordable housing “state of emergency”—city leaders objected when marketing materials suggested that the campus site could be redeveloped into housing: they wanted it to be preserved for educational use.

A group of city leaders sent Holy Names a letter in March which described the college as crucial to the city’s workforce and economic development, the Business Times reported. The leaders warned that converting the campus into a residential development would entail an extensive entitlement process.

Holy Names told the city last month they had contacted more than 100 historically Black colleges across the US and some liberal art universities in the Bay Area but believe that interest in the site was hindered by an estimated $200M in deferred maintenance that the property requires.