IU hopes to acquire old Pike house

The IU real estate office is seeking approval from the board of trustees to exercise statutory authority to acquire the empty Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house on the corner of Third Street and Faculty Avenue.\nThe board of trustees will decide on the approval at a meeting at the end of the week. If approved, IU will automatically acquire the property at an appraised value. \nThe fraternity house went on sale Jan. 8 for an asking price of $1.1 million. According to Lynn Coyne, assistant vice-president of University Real Estate and Economic Development, previous offers IU made in purchasing the property were turned down due to disagreements about price.\nAfter the University's failed attempts at buying negotiations, Coyne said IU is now in a position to formally acquire the property through statutory authority.\n"First we have to make attempts at voluntary negotiations," Coyne said. "We made offers to the owner, which were all turned down. Now statutory authority is the second approach we take in acquiring the land."\nPublic institutions, like IU, have the legal power to acquire real estate for an appraised value when the property is needed for the institution's own purposes, Coyne said.\nIf the board of trustees approves the University's request, either a licensed appraiser or a court appointed official will inspect the property and calculate an appraisal cost. In many cases the appraised cost is less than the original asking price of the property, Coyne said.\nCoyne said the University plans to turn the fraternity house into additional office space.\nUnlike IU, John Seeber, a private real-estate investor, was successful at negotiating a deal in purchasing the fraternity house. On Feb. 3, Bank One agreed to an offer from Seeber, who agreed to purchase the fraternity house at the asking price. \nAccording to Dunn Real Estate agent Dee Burris, Bank One has accepted a buying offer, but no final sale has taken place.\n"At this point no sale closure has taken place," Burris said. "Even though we have accepted a buying offer, we are still showing the house and would consider offers from other interested clients." \nInitially, tentative renovation plans were established to convert the fraternity house into the Millennium Project, a center for humanities that would provide shelter and tuition money for less fortunate individuals. But Donovan Roger Berlin, the service director for the Millennium Project, said the final location for the project center is still unknown.\n"We're hopeful that we'll move into the fraternity house, but currently we're still evaluating the University's acceptance to the project," Berlin said. "When we brought the idea of the Millennium Project to Bloomington we were met with some conflict with students and IU officials, and conflict (from IU) is the last thing we want to bring to the project."\nDespite Seeber and Bank One's deal and Berlin's hopes for the Millennium Project, Coyne seems confident that IU will acquire the property.\n"If our bid for an approval goes through, and I cannot think of many reasons why it wouldn't be, the property is pretty much ours," Coyne said.