🔒70 years later, AMC reclaims Prospect Hill mansion

It isn’t often that a real estate owner sells a property, only to buy it back later. (Much later.) But with a New Haven mansion, that’s exactly what happened.

Albertus Magnus College owned the stately brick Georgian home at 490 Prospect St. in the 1940s, sold it, then re-acquired it this summer.

Why the change of heart? In a word: enrollment.

This time around, Albertus paid $5 million for the mansion and for two newer buildings that didn’t exist on the property in the 1940s.

When asked if he wishes former college leaders had held on to the property, Albertus President Marc M. Camille laughs.

“I suppose I do wish they held onto the property — it would have been easier,” Camille says. “I wasn’t present or even alive back in the 1940s, but I am sure, at the time, they had their reasons. I am glad it is back in our family.”

While the college’s decision makers of the 1940s are no longer around, Albertus spokesperson Sarah Barr provides some historical background on the original decision to sell the property.

In 1945 the Catholic college paid $25,000 for the mansion, known as the Farrel House, for use as a residence hall, which it renamed Dominican Hall, explains Barr. But just three years later, in 1948, Albertus sold the mansion and land it was on. The school had bought the Bliss House, which was renamed Mohun Hall, and no longer needed the mansion to house students.

Fast-forward seven-plus decades to 2019. According to college officials, AMC needs more housing to accommodate surging enrollment. In fact, in September the liberal-arts college welcomed its largest incoming class in its 94-year history. More than 275 first-year and transfer students enrolled, a figure 50 percent larger than the Class of 2022 and almost double the size of the Class of 2021. Sixty-one percent of the Class of 2023 requested on-campus housing — which the school is now better equipped to provide.

As for the $5 million price tag this time around, Camille says he deems it a good value and strategic acquisition.

While the 1948 vs. 2019 price difference is substantial, even allowing for inflation, there have been many improvements over the decades, most notably the construction of the two additional buildings.

Camille says college officials are “thrilled” to have the property back as part of their campus. He refers to it as “coming full circle.”

“It helps us meet an immediate need for housing for our growing enrollment,” he says. “With this large incoming class, it put us in a position where we needed options. Some have said it was divine intervention that the property came back on the market. Our students are excited about this new living option.”

The college is using the three buildings for additional student housing, offices and meeting space.

According to Pearce Real Estate of North Haven, which represented the college in the transaction, the deal included the Farrel Mansion at 490 Prospect, a 10,534-square-foot Georgian Colonial Revival home built in 1911. It is known as the Farrel Mansion because it was the home of Franklin Farrel Jr., who commuted to his family business in Ansonia — now Farrel Inc. The mansion features hardwood floors, marble fireplaces and an open staircase.

The two newer, additional buildings come with 24 more housing units. That includes Doane Hall at 492 Prospect St., an 8,892-square-foot building with 11 residential units, and Great Hall at 411 Mansfield St., an 8,457-square-foot house with 13 apartments.

All combined, the deal added more than 28,000 square feet to Albertus’ footprint.

When advertising the property, Real Living Wareck D’Ostilio, which represented the seller, described it as a “spectacular institutional property” on 1.38 acres “in the heart of New Haven.”

The college bought the property from the Overseas Ministries Studies Center, which called the site home since 1987. The center, an incubator for overseas mission work and missionaries, is relocating out of state, to the Princeton (N.J.) Theological Seminary. OMSC purchased the site in 1986 from St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, which operated a grammar school there.

OMSC is still operating out of two of the three buildings. OMSC has a lease agreement with Albertus and is conducting its Residential Study Program through December while also preparing for its move. Its ministry will operate exclusively out of Princeton starting in mid-2020.

According to Camille, Albertus students are already in one of the three buildings, and will be using all three once OMSC moves on.

“By January, we will be using all three,” Camille says. “We are in the midst of strategic planning about the best use of the mansion, which has a number of office and meeting rooms along with bedrooms.”

Real Estate Agents Frank D’Ostilio Jr. and his colleague Nancy Andersen of Real Living Wareck D’Ostilio represented the seller, Overseas Ministries.

According to D’Ostilio, the property was on the market for about two months. It was initially listed in June for $5,650,000 and sold in August for $5 million.

D’Ostilio says this is the first time he has handled a transaction where a property was repurchased by a former owner decades later: “It is a unique thing.”

While older and more expensive properties can be more difficult to sell, this wasn’t the case this time. In the two month period, they received several offers. D’Ostilio notes the property is in “excellent condition” and could have been easily converted into apartments.

“We had offers from institutions and investors, but $5 million was the best offer,” D’Ostilio says. “The seller was very pleased it went to another institution over an investor.”

Jamie Cuzzocreo, commercial associate with Pearce Real Estate in North Haven, represented the college.

“It was a unique sale, given how they owned it, then it was a ministry, and now it is going back to Albertus,” Cuzzocreo says. “The school is constantly growing. The timing was perfect.”