- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Real Estate
The Wells College Board of Trustees has agreed to sell its historic Aurora, N.Y. campus to the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge, a nonprofit focused on Indigenous education and community development.
The $12.5 million offer, submitted in June 2025, was accepted this week. Les Lo Baugh, chair, president and founding member of the institute, told The Post Standard the purchase would be financed with a loan from the Native American Bank.
Wells College closed in 2024 following 156 years in operation. A flurry of offers, including a prior $10.8 million offer by the Hiawatha Institute, followed. The Institute’s second offer was eventually accepted in December, per The Post Standard’s report. A section on Wells College’s purchase on the Hiawatha Institute’s website states the area’s history led the Institute to pursue the acquisition.
According to the proposal, the institute plans to create an accredited college focused on Indigenous studies, supported by a range of revenue drivers including apartments and business leases.
“With this rich history, this ancestral land of the Cayuga at Aurora and the Wells Campus were identified as the location for the future Indigenous College,” the institute wrote.
Hiawatha’s plan centers on a two-phase redevelopment that blends cultural preservation with economic revitalization, according to a copy of the organization’s proposal obtained by Tribal Business News. Phase I of the project — dubbed “Peachtown” — will convert three former dormitories into 80 to 100 market-rate apartments, with rents below the regional median. Commercial partners are being courted for build-to-suit retail spaces, with all for-profit ventures subject to local taxation.
Phase II will establish the Indigenous College itself. Students from accredited universities will study in semester-long residencies focused on Indigenous art, language, history, and environmental studies. Visiting faculty will also live onsite, reducing administrative overhead and enabling a leaner, mission-driven model, according to the proposal.
In addition, Hiawatha will create a land trust to manage leases and direct surplus revenue to the institute. Events like the Santa Fe Indian Market and proposed partnerships with groups including the Haudenosaunee Nationals and Native American Music Awards are expected to generate additional income.
Hiawatha says the campus will remain open to the public and aims to foster a village-like atmosphere rooted in Indigenous values of shared community. The nonprofit has pledged to preserve the campus’s architectural integrity and prioritize former Wells staff for new jobs, per The Post Standard.
The sale is expected to close in early spring.
