Lutheran School of Theology sells off Hyde Park campus for $19M

The University of Chicago bought the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago’s three-building campus for about $18.5 million as the school continues to sell off its real estate portfolio.

The seminary’s main campus, located at 1100 East 55th Street across from the university’s Hyde Park campus, is the latest asset the institution has offloaded, following the sale of 80 residential housing units in 2020 and 2021, according to a Wednesday announcement from Avison Young. 

Brokers James Hanson, Richard Hanson, Richard Shield, Marissa Rose and Jordan Mellovitz from Avison Young’s Chicago office represented the Lutheran school in the negotiations.

“Like many institutions of higher learning, LSTC had been examining its core educational model even before the pandemic, and our real estate plans aligned with their institutional strategic plan that will guide LSTC’s operations in the coming decades,” Hanson said in a statement.

The University of Chicago did not respond to an inquiry from The Real Deal about its plans for the property. In a joint statement announcing the sale last May, the university said it planned an adaptive reuse of the buildings to support education and research.

In a letter posted on the seminary’s website and dated March 9, the Lutheran school’s president, James Nieman, said it would be the sole occupant in the building once the sale was completed but would be moving to its new home in summer 2023. The seminary is staying in Hyde Park, moving to the campus of Catholic Theological Union at 5416 South Cornell Avenue.

The seminary is joining other higher education institutions in evaluating their real estate footprints over the last few years amid an increase in online learning. Two offices occupied by university tenants went up for sale in the western Chicago suburbs in recent months, with DeVry University’s former owner putting a Naperville property up for sale and marketing it as a redevelopment opportunity.

In downtown Chicago, Robert Morris University vacated the historic office building at 401 South State Street in April 2020, leaving the property to be auctioned off for $20 million at a court-ordered sale earlier this month. On the West Coast, American Jewish University put its 35-acre campus up for sale last year.