Pomona Property Acquired by Fuller Seminary is Now for Sale

Just months after Fuller Theological Seminary announced it was no longer intent on moving out of Pasadena, Fuller is now selling the properties it acquired in Pomona, where it had planned to move according to an announcement made in May 2018.

Real estate company CBRE Inc. posted a listing on Fuller Seminary’s behalf for a square block bounded by Holt and Garey avenues, and Main and Center streets in Pomona, and the existing structures on it, as well as a large existing city parking lot, “on an unpriced basis,” the posting said.

The whole property consists of over 148,000 square feet.

A report in Daily Bulletin said Fuller bought up to seven properties in or around the block for its planned Pomona campus, spending about $8.6 million, citing property transaction records.

Quoting Pomona officials, the report said a block of buildings along Garey Ave. would have been demolished, and a four-story building, with about 100,000 square feet of space, would have been built for Fuller Seminary to occupy by 2021.

In October, Fuller Seminar president Mark Labberton announced the Board of Trustees had decided Fuller will remain in Pasadena.

Labberton said the shift in plans was caused by two major factors: dramatically escalated costs of construction in Southern California, and differences with the city of Pasadena, which affected the sale and sale price of the seminary’s Pasadena campus.

“This means re-embracing our home in Pasadena, a place we love and want to serve, even as we feel nothing but gratitude for the support and welcome we were extended from the City of Pomona,” Labberton said in October. “This decision will require working closely with the city in immediate steps toward consolidating our Pasadena footprint to better serve the needs of our current students and community.”

The CBRE listing said the Pomona properties can be purchased as a portfolio or individually or in any combination of Groups 1, 2 and 3, with Group 1 including a building at 221 W. Holt Ave., Group 2 consisting of three buildings along N. Garey Ave., and Group 3 a building on Main St.
For more information about the listing, visit www.pomonaredevelopment.com.