Averett University is planning to sell its athletic campus in Danville in its ongoing effort to stabilize its finances.
A document dated Aug. 11 outlined the private university’s plan to sell the 70-acre E. Stuart James Grant North Campus on Mount Cross Road to investors for $18.15 million.
The notice was posted on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, which enforces regulations on municipal bonds.
The university would lease back the property over 10 years and retain control as primary tenant, Averett spokesperson Cassie Jones said Tuesday. “Averett will continue to have priority use of the property, so our athletic fields, training facilities and academic buildings located there will continue to serve our students,” she wrote in an email to Cardinal News. “This means our student-athletes and campus community will not experience any changes in the way they work, learn and play on our North Campus.”
The rental rate would be equal to a 4.5% annual return on the investor’s purchase price, according to the document.
The purchase price, to be paid over three years, adds up to nearly the amount that the university says was withdrawn from its endowment between 2022 and 2024 to cover the school’s bills, according to a lawsuit by Averett against its former CFO and investment firm. That federal lawsuit was ordered to arbitration on Aug. 6. 
Jones described the interested buyers for the North Campus property as “regional investors, including the Danville Regional Foundation.”
“The project in the filing still has many details to iron out before we can discuss it, but Danville Regional Foundation believes that Averett University is a critical partner in our region’s economic transformation, and we are open to opportunities to help them navigate this crisis,” said Clark Casteel, president and CEO of the Danville Regional Foundation, in an email to Cardinal News.
The DRF is a grantmaking organization that invests in economic development in and around Danville.
“This arrangement would keep the North Campus property under local control while providing support in a responsible way to a regional institution that is a major economic asset,” Averett President Thomas Powell said by email Monday.
He said that the university couldn’t share the names of additional investors interested in the site “due to the ongoing nature of this.”
North Campus is the primary location for Averett’s 20-plus NCAA Division III sports programs, located about a 10-minute drive northwest of the main campus location along West Main Street. It houses the school’s indoor athletic complex, football stadium and various playing fields. Averett acquired the North Campus property in 1990.
Averett had about 1,450 students for the 2024-2025 academic year. Documents shared with bondholders show the university estimates its enrollment will be about 100 students lower this year. Classes for the fall semester begin Aug. 20.
The lease-back agreement would include an option to renew for an additional 10 years. The notice about the proposed sale specifies that Averett would retain the right to repurchase the property at any time for the original sale price or portion already paid over the next three years.
In order to complete the transaction, the university must get approval from its bondholders.
Averett has been in nonmonetary default since January on bonds taken out in 2017 to pay off old debts and to renovate campus buildings. The university has made its payments on time, but is considered to be in violation of its terms because it failed to maintain certain financial thresholds showing its ability to repay the debt. As of June 2024, about $13.3 million remained on the balance, according to a university audit, to be paid through 2047.
American Century Investment Management, which holds about 25% of the outstanding bonds, has already agreed to the requests. The notice asks bondholders to respond before the end of August.
“If, for some reason, we were not to receive enough votes, I will work with our Trustees to determine another course of action to position Averett for long-term viability,” Powell wrote to Cardinal News. “We are all committed to the future of Averett.”
The university previously asked bondholders this year to waive its nonfinancial default on its bonds.
The new notice to bondholders withdraws that original waiver request and replaces it with one that adds on approving the sale of the facility.
The university is not in monetary default. “It is still important to note that the bondholders have not accelerated the debt, or expressed any interest in accelerating the bonds to the bond trustee or the university,” Jones said.
Averett’s financial crisis was revealed in spring 2024. The university’s response has included layoffs and the elimination of several academic programs, along with the sale of several properties.
After auctioning off its contents, Averett sold its president’s residence in July for $650,000, Danville property records show.
The school has also sold a two-story house adjacent to an elementary school to Danville Public Schools for $250,000.
Three other residential buildings, including a three-story apartment building, have sold for a total $970,000, the Danville Register and Bee first reported.
Averett’s equestrian center in Providence, North Carolina, is on the market for $1.6 million.
