NMC To Sell Boardman Lake Campus To Grand Traverse Band Of Ottawa And Chippewa Indians

Just months after relocating its University Center operations to main campus, Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) is poised to sell the since-renamed Boardman Lake Campus to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB).

In the closing moments of their regular December meeting on Monday evening, NMC's Board of Trustees voted to authorize President Nick Nissley to work with the college’s outside legal counsel, Miller Canfield, as well as commercial real estate firm Cunningham-Limp “to present a letter of intent to [GTB] detailing the college’s opening response to the tribe’s recent proposal to purchase the Boardman Lake Campus property.” That decision came after an hour-and-a-half-long stint in closed session, which the board entered “to consider a privileged legal memo” prepared by Miller-Canfield.

Provided that the tribe “signs the letter of intent on or before” December 30, Nissley is further authorized “to exercise his discretion whether to suspend the October 20, 2025 RFP that’s entitled ‘Master Lease of the NMC Boardman Lake Campus,’ pending negotiations with the tribe.” If the tribe does sign the letter, Nissley also has authorization “to work with Cunningham-Limp and Miller Canfield to negotiate the terms of a final purchase and sale agreement to sell the Boardman Lake Campus to the tribe, subject to the final of approval by the Board of Trustees.”

News of a reportedly “significant” purchase offer from the GTB broke earlier this month in the wake of meetings of two NMC committees: the executive committee and the building and site committee. Both committees discussed whether the college could reasonably or legally accept the tribe’s offer, given the aforementioned RFP (request for proposals) that was issued for potential Boardman Lake Campus leases in October. So far, NMC has not publicly disclosed a dollar amount or any other specific details about the tribe’s offer.

The home of NMC’s University Center for 30 years, the Boardman Lake Campus went through big changes this year as the college’s university partners moved to main campus. Explaining the reasoning behind that relocation, which was completed in time for the fall semester, NMC Board Chair Laura Oblinger said the university partners had long wanted “to be on main campus and have that interaction with students that are currently enrolled at NMC.”

The Boardman Lake Campus has continued to house multiple NMC functions, including its business and human resources offices, its extended education and training department, its strategic initiatives office, and the NMC Foundation. In addition, Greenspire High School has a lease on much of the building’s second floor, which lasts through 2030. Speaking to The Ticker in April, though, Nissley said the college would explore its options for the building, highlighting “really three things that can be done with the property.”

“One is, do we lease it? We’ve got a lessee in there now, with Greenspire High School, and we could look at doing more of that, and hopefully meet community needs and develop a revenue stream in the process,” Nissley said. “The second option is to outright sell the property, if we decide we don’t want to manage it as a landlord. And thirdly, we could do some kind of development on the property.”