LIBERTY
ACQUIRES
SEARS
BUILDING to Assist in Transition Hotel Exhibit Hall Arena
This proposed site plan shows the eventual transformation of the property into a civic center.
student apartments, accommodating many students who now commute several miles daily. Private real estate developers have also indicated that they may build housing complexes near the school. One concept would allow students to rent rooms around a common living area without the need for a standard lease legally obligating roommates for each other’s rent.
Liberty purchased the former Sears building at River Ridge Mall for $6.9 million in October 2012. The 112,000-square-foot building, with 700 parking spaces, will be used in the short term to house Liberty’s non-academic departments, freeing up space for several academic departments to relocate while their buildings are being demolished and new ones are built. Once the new academic buildings are constructed, faculty and staff from those departments will move to their new spaces on main campus and the university plans to vacate the Sears property. Liberty has presented a proposal for the site to eventually become a new Lynchburg Civic Center, with the university as its primary tenant.
LIBERTY JOURNAL
27