Yes, 28 acres and 398,000 square feet of building space gives Samford University officials plenty of room to act on campus dreams. But what may have the entirety of the Samford family the most excited — at least initially — is the potential for 1,073 additional parking spaces.
“The parking is huge for us,” said Betsy Holloway, Samford’s chief marketing officer. “We’ve experienced extensive growth … on campus. The parking is really good news to a lot of folks who worry about our expansion efforts with respect to parking.”
The potential new parking spaces, building space and acreage was announced Nov. 3 — and is so close Samford leaders can literally reach out and touch it because it sits adjacent to the Lakeshore Drive campus in Homewood.
And if the next few weeks fall in line like anticipated, then Samford will acquire the property now owned by Time, Inc.
Samford originally owned the property, which was sold to Time, Inc., in 1987 to house Southern Progress Corporation. More than half of the 28 acres came to Samford in 1971 in an exchange of parcels of land with the city of Homewood so Homewood High School could be built at its present location on the south side of Lakeshore Drive.
Samford also originally owned the land east of the Time, Inc., property closest to Highway 31 where First Baptist Church, Birmingham, now sits. It was sold by Samford to First, Birmingham, in 1984.
Samford’s property on the south side of Lakeshore Drive, including more than what the high school now has, was deeded to Samford (then Howard College) in November 1940, according to Samford officials. Since that time — and since Samford moved from its East Lake location to Homewood in 1957 — various aspects of the property have been leased, sold and developed.
In 2006 the university re-purchased the tract where the Samford Track and Soccer Complex is now located. In February 2014 Samford purchased the 600 University Park Drive property and office building.
As far as potential for the current 318-acre campus to expand north or west, Samford is under a moratorium with the City of Homewood for no expansion in those directions until after July 2018.
But even with potential for future expansion in other directions, Samford officials said those discussions are not taking place. The focus is on the Dec. 2 board of trustees meeting in which Samford trustees will vote on the contract for the Time, Inc., property acquisition.
Ready to move
If all goes through as planned, then Southern Progress will move its operations into the easternmost building on the property. There are three buildings and the one building will be leased back to Time, Inc.
Evelyn Webster, executive vice president of Time, Inc., said in a Nov. 4 email to Southern Progress employees, “[W]e anticipate we will move into our new accommodation by the end of 2015. … [W]e’ve been working diligently to find a way to both utilize our vacant space and to create state-of-the-art facilities.
“[This] … achieves both of these objectives and also allows us to partner with and support Samford University in their focus on delivering high quality education to its students.”
While the selling price has not been disclosed, the following statement was released by Time, Inc., on Nov. 4 during an earnings phone call with analysts: “We just signed a letter of intent to sell our Birmingham … campus, with net proceeds in excess of $50 million … .”
Samford President Andrew Westmoreland said Samford’s intention is to use the property to relocate the four schools now making up the new College of Health Sciences — pharmacy, nursing, health professions and public health — under one roof. “We will develop vehicular and pedestrian access to connect the existing campus [to the new property],” he said in an email to Samford employees and students.
It will be at least 2016 before classes will be operational in the new buildings. Decisions also will have to be made about the buildings that will be vacated.
“It is important to note that we must have a reasonable revenue plan associated with the many details of these changes, and we’ll resist the temptation to simply spread our existing operations over a larger footprint,” he said. “We are now afforded a rare opportunity to develop plans that will influence Samford in ways that stretch far beyond our lifetimes so extraordinary wisdom will be required to guide our steps.”
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