水果派AV

Warshauer, chairman and CEO of Grande Venues, a Minnesota-based historic property development firm, inquired about the property. In a call with CBRE, the firm tasked with marketing the 127-acre campus, he asked if there were other interested parties because he did not know whether he would want to acquire the entire property.

Those connections, Warshauer revealed in an interview with 水果派AV, led to the initial offer 鈥� a joint venture that would transform the campus into an Indigenous college, international boarding school and senior housing community.

The boarding school portion of the plan was dropped after Warshauer learned they didn't have enough money for the project and lacked experience with establishing institutions in the U.S.聽

A revised $10.7 million offer was submitted with the focus on opening the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge and creating a senior housing development. According to an updated vision provided by Warshauer, space would be available for an existing college or university to establish a satellite campus in Aurora.

A grocery store or community market would also be part of the project. That would address a need in the village, where residents must drive six miles to Union Springs for the closest supermarket.

Warshauer has experience transforming former schools into senior housing. One of the projects highlighted on Grande Venues' website is establishing a senior housing complex at a former high and middle school in New Ulm, Minnesota.

Combining the Hiawatha Institute and senior housing community is modeled after developments at Arizona State University and Purchase College in New York.

"My goal was for intergenerational learning, which means college kids and seniors in a similar environment," Warshauer said.

Although there has been a mostly positive reception to Warshauer's proposal, he acknowledged there has been "a lot of resistance" from critics who want the Wells campus to be revived as a liberal arts college.聽

The only other known offer to buy the campus is from the Cleveland Commission for Wells, an alumni group that wants to restore the college.聽

"That model didn't work, point blank," Warshauer said. "There are so many of these liberal arts colleges going out of business around the country because they can't make it. There are not enough students, tuition is high, the birth rates are dropping. We think our proposal is the best one out there."

Warshauer does not know the timetable for Wells College's board of trustees to decide whether to accept his or any other offer. The board announced on March 21 that it received "multiple offers" to buy the campus and is reviewing the submissions.

If Warshauer's group is successful, he plans to preserve Wells College's legacy in Aurora. None of the buildings will be demolished and the campus will be preserved. Any additions will be constructed in accordance with National Register of Historic Places guidelines.

One aspect of the project will be a college archive, according to Warshauer, and he would like to have the Minerva statue reclaim its prominent place on campus. The statue was damaged when college staff attempted to move it in June.

Warshauer also wants to establish a Wells College alumni center.

"We'd like to honor them and make sure they feel welcome on their own campus," he said.

The plan for the campus includes keeping the Community Medical Center and Peachtown Elementary School on site. Both institutions are facing uncertainty due to the future sale of the campus and what a new owner may want to do with the property. The medical facility and school occupy buildings on the Wells campus.

"We want to be good neighbors," Warshauer said. "We obviously want to make some money for our investors, but my biggest concern is to save and keep the historic perspective and historic development of this property in forward focus."