University finalizes Washington Post plant purchase

ANNAPOLIS – The stage is set for the university to push forward with East Campus development after the Board of Public Works yesterday approved the university's $12 million purchase of The Washington Post Company's College Park printing plant.

The three-member board, which is composed of Gov. Martin O'Malley, Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot, unanimously approved the purchase. The approval represents a victory for the university and breaks a string of bad news about the development, which seeks to fundamentally change the image of College Park.

"I'm thrilled," Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie said after the vote. "We appreciate the support of the city, and we're thrilled."

The university will use the space to relocate facilities currently housed on East Campus to clear space for a 38-acre development that will include shops, a music hall and graduate student housing.

The approval ends a tumultuous search for a suitable site for the facilities, which include the Campus Mail Facility, Shuttle-UM and maintenance shops. The university's original plan to move the services to a 22.4-acre forested area near Comcast Center known as the Wooded Hillock drew the ire of environmentally minded students and professors, some of whom used the site for class instruction. Unrest culminated in a University Senate vote near the end of last semester overwhelmingly opposing the use of the hillock.

Besides the hillock controversy, the university has also had trouble finding financing for the project, and the original developer, Foulger-Pratt/Argo, pulled out of the project last semester, forcing the university to develop the project piece by piece instead.

If the university can find developer support, Wylie said, construction on East Campus could begin within a year. Relocation to the closed plant would begin as soon as possible.

The economic impact to the city was one of the major sticking points of the purchase. The Washington Post Company paid about $260,000 in property tax to the city last year, but because the university is a state organization, it will not pay any city property tax.

To assuage the city's concerns, the university will compensate the city for the lost revenue. The university had originally offered to pay a fixed yearly sum, but after city officials questioned the plan at a College Park City Council meeting, the university agreed to pay a variable rate based on an assessment conducted by the State Department of Assessments and Taxation. In the days before the meeting, city officials wrote a letter to the Board of Public Works stating they did not oppose the purchase.

"The [payment] goes a ways towards lessening the harm that comes from taking our largest taxpayer off the tax rolls," Mayor Andy Fellows said.

Fellows said he was pleased the purchase would bring much-needed graduate student housing close to the campus and it meant the hillock would be spared.

"On the whole, East Campus will be a great benefit to the city," he said.

cox@umdbk.com