The General Theological Seminary said Thursday it will lease its underutilized New York City campus to Vanderbilt University, nearly two years after the seminary announced the discontinuation of its residential Master of Divinity program.
The lease agreement includes the entirety of “the Close,” a moniker General uses for its historic five-acre campus, where the school has been based since its founding in 1817. Spanning nearly a full city block in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, the school’s 13 buildings total approximately 150,000 square feet.
General declined to disclose the terms of the lease agreement, though the property is reportedly valued at more than $100 million. Under the agreement, the seminary will continue to occupy portions of campus year-round, including some administrative offices and faculty apartments.
The seminary said the arrangement will “secure GTS’ presence on the Close for decades to come” while also allowing for building improvements. Seminary leaders have repeatedly said they do not intend to sell the campus.
It will also allow General to accommodate more students visiting campus for their intensive weeks, held three times annually, as part of the school’s hybrid M.Div. program, along with commencement and matriculation.
Since shifting from a traditional three-year, residential program to the hybrid model, the seminary has accommodated students in one, 16-room residential building, which limited the program capacity, said Nicky Burridge, the seminary’s vice president for communications. Now, the seminary will use additional buildings to accommodate up to 45 students, she said.
This fall, General saw its largest new class of M.Div. students since 2010, with 18 matriculating. Now three years into offering the hybrid program exclusively, the seminary has a total 42 enrolled students. Students have the option to complete the M.Div. in three or four years.
“Following the introduction of our hybrid M.Div., which combines online learning with in-person intensives, we found a mission-compatible tenant, which guarantees we continue to operate out of our historic home. GTS is now set to serve the Church for another century in New York,” the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, president of The General Theological Seminary, said in a news release.
Earlier, General pursued a long-term lease with a nonprofit choral music school, which elicited pushback from the bishops of the Dioceses of New York and Long Island over the organization’s assumed stance on LGBTQ issues.
“The seminary received offers to lease the Close from a number of entities, including, as previously reported, the School of Sacred Music (SSM). After reviewing these offers, the GTS Board voted unanimously to accept the offer from Vanderbilt. It wishes the SSM the very best with its future endeavors,” the seminary said in its announcement Thursday.
For its part, Vanderbilt offered few details about its plans, which are pending approval from various regulatory bodies, though the deal builds on the university’s existing presence in the city. Last year, Vanderbilt established a regional administrative hub in New York City to house alumni relations, career advancement and enrollment affairs functions. Home to more than 7,800 alumni, New York City has the largest Vanderbilt community outside of Nashville, the university said.
The lease is expected to begin in early 2025, once approvals are secured.
In its announcement, General stressed that the lease agreement is not a merger, and the seminary will continue to “operate as a separate entity with its own distinct identity and programming.”
In 2022, GTS entered an affiliation agreement with Virginia Theological Seminary, through which the two seminaries operate as separate entities, retaining their own accreditations, endowments and boards, but sharing an overlapping governance structure and executive leadership team.
