Anna Maria College has called off the auction of its shuttered 260-acre campus in Paxton after failing to land a qualified buyer willing to take the entire property, even though six bids came in before the October 9 deadline. Only three of those offers met the sale requirements, and none of them amounted to a clean purchase of the whole site.
According to MassLive, the college accepted one of the three qualifying bids, but a second qualifying offer would have required subdividing the campus — a process the college says could be too expensive and time-consuming — while a third bidder offered less per acre than Anna Maria believes it can get. With the full-site sale falling apart, the college now plans to instead pursue the sale of a much smaller 2.4-acre parcel that has already received local approval to be separated from the rest of the campus. The college has said the court will likely have questions about next steps now that the broader sale process produced less than ideal results, the outlet reports.
The scrapped auction is the latest setback in a liquidation that began after Anna Maria filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 26, 2026, through its parent corporation, The Sisters of Saint Ann, Inc., doing business as Anna Maria College. The case, assigned to Chief Judge Elizabeth D. Katz in the Worcester Central Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts, carries case number 4:26-bk-40758, according to Inforuptcy. Per MassLive's reporting, the college filed for bankruptcy with less than $55,000 in available funds, after having used $2.36 million in restricted endowment funds for operating expenses rather than their donor-designated purposes in 2025.
Debt Estimates Diverge as Campus Value Looms Large
The college's debt load has been described differently depending on the source and timing. A lawyer for the college estimated the debt at below $30 million, MassLive reports, while bankruptcy filings from August 2026 cited by Higher Ed Dive put the secured debt specifically at roughly $17.7 million, a figure trustees hoped to satisfy through real estate sales. The Paxton campus itself was assessed at $41 million, according to MassLive, a figure that underscores just how much is riding on finding the right buyer for the property.
Complicating any sale further is an unresolved land dispute. A neighboring Paxton family filed objections in bankruptcy court in August 2026, asserting an unrecorded ownership claim to a campus parcel — a claim the college disputed in court, per Higher Ed Dive's reporting. That dispute traces back to a 2025 state lawsuit brought by David and Elaina Roy, the outlet notes.
Academic Programs Found New Homes Before the Real Estate Did
While the physical campus has proven difficult to offload, Anna Maria did succeed in spinning off several academic programs earlier in the bankruptcy process. In August 2026, the college requested court authorization to sell its nursing program assets and 45 student seats to Assumption University in Worcester for $1.1 million, netting $990,000 after a $110,000 hold-back reserve, according to the Worcester Business Journal. That arrangement allowed nursing students to continue their coursework at Assumption in the fall.
Nichols College in Dudley announced a partnership with Anna Maria College in May 2026 involving academic programs, per Anna Maria College's own announcement.
A Sudden End After 77 Years in Paxton
Anna Maria announced in April 2026 that it would end academic operations the following month, a decision that came two weeks after the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education issued a public notice on April 10 warning that the college lacked sufficient financial resources to assure operations through the next 18 months — a projection period required under state regulations, as previously reported by Hoodline's earlier coverage. As the college announced its closure, layoffs were phased in as spring operations wound down.
Founded in 1949 by the Sisters of Saint Anne, Anna Maria College now faces an unresolved future for its Paxton campus. The college has not distributed state stipends or scholarship money to students, per MassLive's reporting.
Not an Isolated Case in Massachusetts Higher Ed
Anna Maria's struggles fit a wider pattern among small, tuition-dependent colleges across the state. Hampshire College in Amherst is also trying to sell its campus to repay $25 million in debt after announcing in April 2026 that it would close by December, and as of MassLive's reporting, that campus has no announced buyer either. In March 2026, regional accreditor NECHE issued a show-cause directive to Hampshire regarding enrollment declines and debt, a development Hoodline covered in its piece on accreditors setting a showdown in Amherst.
Not every shuttered campus has struggled to find a buyer, though. A Quincy Housing Authority-affiliated nonprofit announced its intention on October 17 to buy the former Eastern Nazarene College campus in Quincy for $21 million, MassLive reports. And in Lancaster, the former Atlantic Union College campus has remained vacant since 2018, a cautionary example of how long an empty rural campus can sit without a buyer. With Anna Maria's full-site auction now canceled, the college's next move — pursuing the 2.4-acre parcel sale while the court weighs its options — leaves the fate of the larger Paxton property still unresolved.
