PROVIDENCE - Brown University said it has put on hold plans to sell three campus buildings for $10 apiece as the economic downturn has led it to rethink whether it will need the space for a new science facility.
The Ivy League university last fall offered to sell the three historic, 19th-century buildings to anyone able to relocate them.
The goal was to clear space for a planned 74,000-square-foot Mind Brain Behavior Building that would house the psychology and cognitive and linguistic sciences departments.
But Stephen Maiorisi, Brown's vice president for facilities management, said Monday that the university was considering saving money by opening the center in a renovated property rather than constructing a building.
"Right now, we're exploring other options for that program," Maiorisi said.
He said the school was waiting for a feasibility study on whether the Mind Brain Behavior headquarters could operate out of a renovated building.
The university in October announced that it was selling the three buildings for $10 as an alternative to demolition. Each property was built between 1850 and 1884, according to city records.
Maiorisi said the school had received offers for the buildings but did not know how many. The school had offered up to $1 million to assist with relocation expenses.
Brown President Ruth Simmons has said she expects the university's endowment to drop to $2 billion at the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The endowment totaled roughly $2.8 billion last June.
The university has also announced plans to freeze the salaries of nearly all faculty and staff and reduce its annual spending about $60 million.
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