UPDATE: The Amalgamated Transit Union today officially announced plans to move its international headquarters from DC to the site of the National Labor College in Silver Spring, which I reported yesterday.
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| The sale includes this 72,000-square-foot building completed in 2006. |
About 40 to 50 union staff will make the move to the new White Oak headquarters, which ATU president Larry Hanley confirmed sold for $31.4 million. The facility will offer classes to train union and community leaders, he said, but it will no longer provide college degrees, as the NLC did before closing its doors in April.
The ATU will revive the "original purpose of the training center from 1970, training working union member and community leaders," Hanley said in an interview.
He also scoffed at a lawsuit against the college seeking to block the sale filed last month by DC-based Monument Realty, which signed a letter of intent to buy the property in December. The suit will not complicate the sale of the campus, Hanley said.
"We're the labor movement," he said. "We don't respond to bullies. This is just a land grab by a greedy developer and it was laughed out of court by the judge."
A judge denied Monument's motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on July 25. The court determined that the firm had suffered no irreparable harm and had "no chance chance of success," Hanley said.
"Today the ATU has stepped up and assumed a greater leadership role in the molding of minds, values and progressive reform for both Canada and the United States, where we represent more than 190,000 workers. The state of the art conference and training center will again be a hub of activity for ATU and the entire labor movement," Hanley said in a press release. "It represents a new beginning in terms of our capacity to train not only our leaders and members, but also those who work every day to improve the life of our society."
ORIGINAL STORY 7/29/2014
The Amalgamated Transit Union plans to move its national headquarters from DC to the site of the debt-crippled National Labor College in Silver Spring, where it will continue to offer classes after paying $31.4 million for the prime property.
The deal was expected to close by Thursday (July 31), after the Maryland Board of Public Works voted to approve the sale and forgive a claim on $2.75 million granted by the state to support the college since 1999. Most proceeds of the sale will go to pay off debt owed to the Bank of America, which holds a first lien on the property and has delayed moving to foreclosure for more than two years.
“The whole house of labor is very disappointed about this turn of events but we’re glad to keep it in the labor family,” college president Paula Peinovich, said during the board’s July 23 meeting.
The property—which has dormitory, classroom and office space totaling 287,071 square feet—sold for far less than its $47.4 million assessed value after two earlier deals fell apart.
The college closed its doors in April after offering university degrees since 1974. The campus was founded and backed by $5 million annually from the AFL-CIO, but it ran into financial trouble during a recent expansion, including construction of the Lane Kirkland Center, a 72,000-square-foot conference facility completed in 2007 with the help of $2 million from state taxpayers.
The transit union will acquire the 45.8 acres campus and its 10 buildings, which sit in the middle of the White Oak science gateway master plan approved Tuesday by the Montgomery County Council. It is a mile south of the FDA headquarters complex, next to a Beltway exit at 10000 New Hampshire Avenue.
Gov. Martin O’Malley cast the only vote against approving the sale and forgiving the state grants, which are supposed to be paid back if the property changes hands. He wanted to defer a vote until officials had a chance to further explore the college’s assets.
But state Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasuer Nancy Kopp accepted the college’s argument that the property likely would fetch a lower price at auction, should Bank of America proceeded with foreclosure next month.
Sue Payne, an aide to state Del. Pat McDonough, R-District 7 (Baltimore and Harford Counties), testified against approving the sale, which she said amounted to an “inside contract” between affiliates of the AFL-CIO, while “the taxpayers are left holding the bag.”
O’Malley also questioned why the $2.75 million in state grants couldn’t have been folded into the price paid by the transit union.
Attorney James Gentile, the college’s general counsel, responded that the transit union offer was a fair one, considering that an earlier deal struck last year with Reid Temple and the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission was valued at only about $27 million before the sale fell apart.
He said the college had hoped to pay off the state and stay afloat as an online school, but the real estate market made that impossible and the threat of foreclosure did not give the college time to wait for a better deal.
“This is the best offer we got,” Gentile said. “We originally hoped to sell the property for significantly more money.”
The sale to the transit union would cover only a $31.08 million settlement with the bank and broker fees, he said.
Gentile added that the labor college is its own non-profit entity that operates independently from the AFL-CIO, which no longer owns the property.
The sale will also support the state’s interest in preserving the site as a labor education facility, because the transit group plans to train its own staff as well as other union workers, Peinovich said. The property will remain the home of the college’s Bonnie Ladin Union Skills Program, which will offer expanded continuing education classes for union leaders, staff, and activists, she said.
The transit union also will preserve the property’s national monument to workers killed on the job.
The union's move to Silver Spring also reflects a recent commitment to train its leadership and members across the nation in political engagement to support increased transit spending.
"Our board voted ... to buy the National Labor College so we could start a permanent training center," ATU president Larry Hanley said in April during the Labor Notes union organizing conference.
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