Suffolk University has sold the John E. Fenton Building and Annex at the corner of Derne and Hancock streets for $15 million, according to various published reports.
The buyer, identified by the school as Atlas Investment Group LLC, a Boston-based, real-estate development firm, purportedly plans to transform the six-story former academic and classroom building into condominiums.
The sale comes as construction continues on the university’s new academic building at 20 Somerset St., which school officials say is slated to open for the fall 2015 semester and will home to 1,200 classroom seats previously located in residential Beacon Hill.
“With the 20 Somerset academic building coming to fruition, College of Arts & Sciences and Sawyer Business School classrooms will be concentrated away from the residential area of Beacon Hill,” university President James McCarthy said in a press release, “and an exciting new academic cluster will emerge around Somerset Street, Ashburton Place, and the corner of Beacon and Tremont streets.”
The Fenton Building, located at 28 and 32 Derne St., opened in 1975. It was named for alumnus John E. Fenton, the university’s fifth president, as well as a board chair and professor.