Samford to purchase Southern Progress campus

Samford University could be the new owner of the Southern Progress Corporation campus on Lakeshore Drive by year’s end. The university signed a letter of intent to purchase the 28-acre property from Time Inc. on Nov. 3.

Betsy Holloway, chief marketing officer at Samford, said the acquisition is anticipated to be complete by the end of 2015 and that the university has been in conversation with Time Inc. for several years about the purchase.

The corporation campus currently houses three large buildings and 1,073 parking spaces adjacent to Samford’s eastern side of campus.

The plan is for Southern Progress’ current operations to remain in one of the three buildings after Time Inc. signs a multi-year lease with Samford for the space. Southern Living, Cooking Light, Coastal Living, book publisher Oxmoor House and other publications are currently housed on the campus, but each has reduced in staff size over the past several years and requires less office space than it did previously.

Holloway said the university is still thinking through how to use the other two buildings but that the initial plan is to relocate the university’s College of Health Sciences to one building. The college encompasses the McWhorter School of Pharmacy, Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, School of Health Professionals and School of Public Health. The university has not yet determined a purpose for the second building, but Holloway said that they hope that Southern Progress operations will move to the building furthest to the east so that they can occupy the two buildings closest to the existing campus.

“This opens a lot of space on our current campus to accommodate growth from student population and our expanding academic programs,” Holloway said. “It’s a really exciting development for Samford University and for our students.”

Holloway estimates it would take about a year to prepare a building for the college to move, and that the university would also add a pedestrian and road connection between the existing campus and newly acquired property, which now are only connected by entrances on Lakeshore.

The price for the property is still in negotiations, but Holloway said it is in excess of $50 million.