In a unanimous decision during Friday's MSU Board of Trustees meeting, board members approved the sale of MSU's Merillat Equine Center, an 80-acre farm in Adrian that specializes in breeding.
The farm was given as a gift to the university in 1996 by the Merillat family. The farm has a number of buildings on its grounds, including an indoor riding area and about 90 horse stalls.
"We very seldom sell real estate," said Trustee Donald Nugent, who sits on the board's finance committee. "The facility, unfortunately, has not worked out the way we'd hoped it would when we brought it here. This is an asset that's better off liquidated. It's just good business."
Due to the farm's distance from campus - about an hour-and-a-half drive from East Lansing - use of the facility has declined in recent years, said Chuck Reid, director of MSU's Land Management Office, which oversees the center.
Student presence at the center has been limited to three or four student interns a year, Reid said.
"It's been a little difficult to involve more students," he said.
There will be no students at the center this fall, said Marci Charest, who manages the equine center's day-to-day activities.
"There's always some feeling of misfortune," Charest said. "(But) it's something that's necessary to do."
Charest is in the process of selling some of the about 30 horses at the center. Horses have been sold regularly throughout the time MSU owned the farm.
All of the horses will eventually be sold, and much of the farm equipment will be sold through the MSU Surplus Store.
Profits from the sale of the farm will be used to establish an endowment fund for equine programs in the Department of Animal Science in the name of the Merillat family.
"Equine research can be done on campus ? just as well as in Adrian," Nugent said.
Faculty involved with the equine center say the teaching aspect can be easily replaced, Reid said, and the university has similar facilities on South campus.
"In these budget times, we have to make very difficult decisions, and horse farms cost money," he said.
Rockland Development Corp., an Ohio-based investment company, has placed a $1.35 million bid for the center, Reid said, which includes the land and all of the buildings.
"We're not real sure what they're going to do with the property," Reid said.
