Houghton College selling Star Lake campus

STAR LAKE — The foundation for Houghton College, a Christian school in Allegany County, is listing its 40-acre Star Lake campus for $799,000.

"We do have an offer, but it's not a confirmed sale so we're not going to release any information about it and we're going to continue to show it," said Sharon L. Myers, director of public relations for Houghton College.

The Willard J. Houghton Foundation purchased the campus for $425,000 in 2001 from Potsdam Auxiliary and College Educational Services, a private corporation that supports programs at SUNY Potsdam.

Houghton, which runs an academic program at Star Lake on environment and culture, has decided to limit the amount of real estate it owns.

"We shouldn't be in the realty management business," Mrs. Myers said. "It doesn't make sense from a strategic point of view. What we're good at is providing education."

According to the description offered by LaValley Real Estate, the property has 311 feet on the shore of Star Lake, and has 17 buildings, including a main lodge, a classroom facility, six cottages, a home for a property manager, a maintenance garage, recreation building, Laundromat, pavilion, boathouse and other outbuildings.

Houghton also listed its 36-acre satellite campus in West Seneca at $2.5 million so it can focus more attention on Buffalo.

The school hopes to sell that campus and lease it back so one of its management programs for working adults can continue there. Likewise, it wants the buyer of its Star Lake campus to lease the property back to it for its fall program, Mrs. Myers said.

Christopher L. Westbrook, who is both president of the Clifton-Fine Economic Development Corp. and director of the Wanakena Ranger School for the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said he thought schools in general were having a hard time keeping all of their operations afloat.

When SUNY Potsdam sold the campus, residents were concerned that it would end up in the hands of a developer.

"I'm not sure where those concerns are today," Mr. Westbrook said.