Northwestern University announced at the NU/City Committee on Thursday evening 7/16/09 that it had closed that day on the purchase of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary’s buildings and land across the street from NU's main campus in Evanston. The property is on the block bounded by Sheridan Road, Orrington Avenue, Haven Street and Garrett Place, where Northwestern already owns more than half the land; the purchase includes property on Garrett Place, consisting of two student “apartment” buildings, one single-family house and a two-flat.

The purchase price is $13 million, and the seller, Seabury-Western, paid transfer taxes to the city in the amount of $650,000.

The purchase excludes two houses on Orrington Avenue that are separately owned. The university, whose tax-exempt status is a sore point with some Evanston residents, noted in a news release that the purchased property is already exempt from property taxes and that it does not plan to seek a zoning change. Northwestern already houses undergraduate students in one of the Seabury buildings and will lease back other space to Seabury, which is converting from a residential seminary for full-time graduate students to a school that offers classes online and through short-term residential classes.