MORRISTOWN, Tenn.
A real estate company has bought the Morristown College campus at auction and plans to convert the site into condominiums and retail space.
Knoxville-based Lane Properties — which paid $776,000 for the 125-year-old historically black college — plans to rebuild on the 52-acre site, according to Kenny Lane, the son of car dealer Harry Lane, who heads the company.
More than 100 people attended the sale, which included prospective buyers, preservationists, city officials and neighbors whose property abuts the college. Twenty bidders registered for the auction.
Before Lane Properties bought the school Wednesday, Furrow Auction Co. offered the property divided into eight individual parcels. The eight bids totaled $706,000.
Lane Properties subsequently bid $776,000 for the whole property, and no one else made an offer.
Lane said his father was interested in the property because he had two car dealerships in Morristown, which have since been sold. He also still owns properties there.
–Associated Press
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
