Colorado Mesa University is expanding the campus through the acquisition of The Seventh Day Adventist Church located on Mesa Avenue. The property was purchased for $4.1 million dollars.
According to the Director of Media Relations Dana Nunn, the property was purchased to benefit not only the campus, but the church as well.
“That property is gradually kind of being surrounded by campus. So it was to their benefit, and to ours for us to purchase that property,” Nunn said. “Over the course of the next year, we’ll be taking possession of different pieces of the whole parcel as the church builds their new facility and starts moving into it.”
The church will now be moving over to 25 1/2 Road and W Orchard Avenue, on a 10-acre lot and is content with the agreements made with CMU. The chairman of the building committee, Bernie Hartnell, gave some insight regarding the negotiations which took place.
“I am very pleased with the working relationship that we’ve had with both Derek Wagner and Tim Foster,” Hartnell said. “I applaud the very workable relationship that’s happened.”
Hartnell made it clear that the church was in no way pushed out of the property, and that this was a mutual negotiation made.
“The negotiations were very fair for us as a church,” Hartnell said.
The use of this new property for the campus is still unknown, however there are a few ideas on the table.
“How we’re going to use that property is still being evaluated, depending on the appropriate needs,” Nunn said. “The thing that’s at the top of the list right now is consideration of moving Little Mavericks over to the school facility on that property, because I think that would be a great home for Little Mavericks.”
The construction site for the new location of the church has begun the process of rebuilding and as the church begins to move. CMU will further make plans on what the additions to the campus will be used for.
