WINONA, Minn. – By law Winona State is in a waiting period during which it cannot negotiate below the $3.2 million appraised value to sell its oversized and outdated Lourdes dorm 1-1/2 miles from the main campus. For more than the year that Lourdes has been on the market, there have been no takers. In December, however, the university will be free to declare the dorm an albatross and turn the sale over to a commercial broker and sell it for less than the appraised value — or maybe more if a broker can wrangle more for the building. Without any buyers to date, however, and needing cash to offset declining enrollment and concomitant revenue losses, the university, as well as a broker, appears in less than an ideal negotiating position. Too, the broker fee for commercial real estate is steep, typically a 5% to 6% commission.

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Lourdes prospects

The Lourdes dorm was built in 1928 by the Rochester-based Assisi Franciscans, a Catholic religious order.  As a dorm, Lourdes was the showcase of the Franciscans’ St. Teresa women’s college. Its Medieval architecture was gorgeous. The building, however, is fundamentally a dormitory, albeit fancy for its era. It doesn’t fit easily into any of today’s usual broad categories for commercial real estate:

> Office.

> Retail, including shops and restaurants.

> Multi-family apartments.

> Industrial.

> Building sites.

Repurposing Lourdes would costly.

Other St. Teresa dorms

Two smaller St. Teresa dorms that Winona State sold 2021 went to Cotter Schools. Cotter is using hem for its own student housing. Cotter, however, passed up on the much larger Lourdes and has no foreseeable need for additional student housing. From time to time Saint Mary’s University has eyed acquisitions at the St. Teresa campus, but, like Winona State, Saint Mary’s is caught in enrollment losses and isn’t needful of housing for students a whole mile from its Terrace Heights campus.