The board of trustees approved the purchase of the Keystone Business Centre on Seminary Street during an executive council meeting Feb. 22. Keystone will house the Department of Human Environmental Sciences

The university will purchase the building for $1.8 million, said Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs Clinton Carter.

“The property meets our needs better than any of the other properties we’ve looked at,” Carter said. “There’s no need to renovate. It just needs modest improvements for classroom space.”

A few tenants still occupy the building. The university will honor the tenants’ contracts until they expire, which is the end of this year, he said.

Pro-tempore of the board of trustees Marty Abroms said he abstained from the vote because he owns part of the office next to Keystone.

Abroms said the building is still subject to final appraisal before the university purchases the building.

“(The purchase) cannot happen unless appraisal goes well,” he said. “We want to pay fair market value for the building. If the appraisal is lower than what we are offering, we will have to negotiate with the owner.”

Check the Feb. 25 issue of The Flor-Ala for a full story.