UMass to complete $18.7 million purchase of Bayside property

By Globe Staff

UMass Boston is expected to complete its purchase of the neighboring Bayside property tomorrow, the college said today. It paid $18.7 million for the 20-acre waterfront parcel.

The school plans to use the site as temporary space for parking, classrooms, and offices, while it embarks on its largest campus expansion in 35 years, with the construction of an integrated science building, a general academic building, and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

University officials have not disclosed their long-term plans for the new property, other than to say it will not be used for dormitories.

"This is a great step forward for UMass Boston and our plans to bring world-class academic facilities to Boston’s only public university,'' Chancellor J. Keith Motley said in a statement.

The college will hold a block party Saturday on the site from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Neighbors and others in the community are invited.

The price for the property is less than the $22 million mortgage that Corcoran Jennison Co. held on the property, before it became delinquent and the mortgage holder bought it back for $11 million at an auction last spring.