Early look at an envisioned redevelopment for the Atlantic Union College campus

 

 

Lancaster's Select Board looked at an early plan for redeveloping the former Atlantic Union College site during Monday's Select Board meeting.   Among the early concepts: a community athletic center, a vocational school, a hotel and a variety of housing types.

 

Russ Williston, 4/9/2026 

I moved to Lancaster in 2008:  at that time Atlantic Union College was still operating, but only just barely.  One of the first town meetings I attended was in the college auditorium.     Like many other small colleges it was struggling to maintain enrollment as demographics changed -- as smaller families have become the norm, there are simply fewer college students to enroll.  Atlantic Union offered ever deeper tuition subsidies to compete for students until the cycle became unsustainable: accreditors consider the financial health of colleges, and Atlantic Union was finally forced to close in 2011.

 The college campus is still owned by the Atlantic Union Conference, and they've taken a number of approaches to reusing it: initially, there was an attempt to reopen the college with limited programs.  There was an effort to sell it to another Adventist conference to run as an additional campus.  Ultimately it was listed for sale, and  there was some interest from a buyer who might have reused it as an school for Chinese students moving abroad.  Some of the parcels on the periphery of the campus were successfully sold.

 The plan shared on Monday 

The Atlantic Union Conference been recently been working with a developer who is interested in buying the campus.   The Select Board assigned a member -- Ralph Gifford -- as a liaison to stay informed of the plans for the campus.    

Mr. Gifford presented an update on Monday, including some early concept plans.  Here's a copy:

06042025 Atlantic Union College.pdf

 

Mr. Gifford said no timeline for construction has been expressed to him.. My impression is that these are still very high level, conceptual plans -- and they're dated from more than a year ago -- so don't make plans to stop at the smoothie bar just yet.

I think the plans do offer a glimpse into what the potential developer might have in mind, in a general sense.   Most of the existing buildings are retained and used for non-residential purposes.   Housing is infilled around the campus in new construction: roughly 300 units,  some of which would be 55+ units.   The housing includes large single family homes, town homes and apartments.

 Interesting re-use ideas in this early plan:

The old Field House could become "TEAMWORK LANCASTER OR LANCASTER SPORTS COMPLEX"

"Community rec. gym & holistic health center. Juice bar and convenience store."

The Haskall Building and Machlan Auditorium becomes the "HASKALL BUILDING FOR THE ARTS" 

 "Cultural venue with performances, artist in residence and artist housing. Holistic food cafe"

 The Chan Shun Dining hall become the "CHAN SHUN FOOD COURT AND CHAN SHUN RESTAURANT"

"Food hubs/restaurant, convenience store, culinary school and classes, cafe"

 The Science building could be the "LANCASTER REGIONAL TECH/VOCATIONAL SCHOOL"

 "1st level vocational school -basement tech incubator spaces -level 2 apartments above"

 The old men's dorm at the corner of Main and George Hill becomes a hotel:

"Retail hotel rooms, refurbish pool" 

 

The main campus is imagined as being maintained in it's current form, with the buildings reused for non-residential purposes.  There's actually a carousel labeled "22":  "WITH PANELS FOR WINTER. OPEN SIDES FOR SPRING, SUMMER, AND FALL." 

 

Behind the field house, north of George Hill Road, there's a lot of new residential construction shown.  The AUC headquarters on Main Street is re-imagined as an assisted living facility.

What's next?

The developer hopes that Lancaster will approve it's third "Integrated  Planning Overlay District" (IPOD) overlaying the campus.  The Planning Board held a hearing on that zoning change last November, so I imagine it will be up for approval at the Annual Town Meeting in May.

Being in an IPOD overlay district doesn't convey any special uses by-right -- the land would still be in the Residential Zone.  However, it does allow the developer to apply for an "IPOD Special Permit" -- if the developer submits a "Master Plan" that the Planning Board sees as advantageous to the town, they can grant an "IPOD Special Permit" that allows multifamily,light industrial and commercial uses in keeping with that specific master plan.  

An IPOD special permit can only be granted for a mixed-use project:  at least 25% of the floor plan square footage has to be for residential use, and at least 25% must be for commercial and light industrial purposes.

Still a long way to go 

Dealing with the campus has clearly been an extremely emotional process for the Atlantic Union Conference.   My family likes to walk on the campus, and one day an older alumni pulled into the parking lot.  He had clearly been unaware that his Alma-mater had closed, and he asked me what happened; he wiped away tears as I brought him up to date.  Hopefully some of these plans can come to fruition, as it is a beautiful campus with a lot of potential -- the conference clearly wants to see it reused as something valuable, and I think the town would love to help make that reality.