Brown University, RI Brown to Brown Home Ownership Program

Type: Program

Status: Ongoing

Source File: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_Faculty/browntobrown/index.html

Description:

Brown to Brown Home Ownership Program is a new program designed to sell Brown-owned residential properties to eligible members of the faculty and staff. Supporting the Plan for Academic Enrichment, this program is intended to help the University attract and retain faculty and staff, provide faculty/staff housing close to campus, put under-utilized properties into productive use, and improve relations with neighbors and the City of Providence.

Program Summary
The properties in the program are all on College Hill and currently are unused or under-used by the University. These properties are in attractive residential neighborhoods close to the campus and best suited to family residential use rather than academic, administrative or student housing.

An important goal of the program is to restore these homes so they are enhancements to neighborhoods and assets for Brown. With a strong demand for housing on the east side of Providence, this program also presents a mechanism to help attract and retain faculty and staff who want housing within easy walking distance to the University, often in desirable historic neighborhoods.

Additionally, this program is a demonstration of Brown's commitment to the City of Providence and its College Hill neighbors by enabling more Brown faculty and staff to live in the community. Furthermore, these properties would become taxable as privately-owned residential properties, adding to the tax base.

The University wants to maintain long-term control of these properties and, therefore, a key element of this program is the option for Brown to repurchase the property should it be needed in the future for academic expansion or other University purposes. Further, to keep houses in the program, Brown also maintains the option to purchase the house should the participant wish to sell, leave the employment of Brown (other than by retirement) or cease to use the property as a primary residence. To ensure houses remain marketable, the University maintains the right to approve capital improvements. As consideration for Brown's buy-back options and approval of improvements, the sale price of the property will be set at 80% of the market appraisal. When the University buys back the property, the repurchase price will be 80% of the then-current market appraisal.