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PHILIPPI -- An "upset bid" has been received from an Elkins businessman seeking to purchase the campus and equipment of bankrupt Alderson Broaddus University for $5 million.
Craig G. Phillips submitted the bid on Friday, according to bankruptcy court records. He also provided a deposit of $10,000.
Phillips is seeking to purchase Alderson Broaddus' "real estate located at 101 College Hill Drive, Phillipi, West Virginia, along with furnishings, fixtures, equipment, and supplies."
DACK Investments, a Buckhannon real estate, rental and leasing company,submitted a bid of $4.9 million in December. A sales hearing on the proposal by DACK Investments was set in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Wednesday, Jan. 31.
Following Phillips' upset bid, there will now be an auction "during a recess of the sale hearing" at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31 in the Bankruptcy Courtroom at 324 West Main Street in Clarksburg.
In August, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission voted to revoke Alderson Broaddus' authorization to confer degrees in the state. The order prevents Alderson Broaddus from conferring any degrees after Dec. 31, and the university is prohibited from enrolling any more students.
Later that week, the Higher Learning Commission announced that "Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, West Virginia, voluntarily resigned its accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission, effective Dec. 31, 2023, due to its upcoming closure."
Later in August, two class action complaints were filed against Alderson Broaddus University, on behalf of students and faculty at the school. The complaints were filed Aug. 8 in Kanawha County Circuit Court in Charleston. The defendants in both complaints are listed as Alderson Broaddus University and James Garvin, chair of the AB Board of Trustees and Governors.
The two class action complaints included claims of fraud, misrepresentation and breach of contract.
Alderson Broaddus University filed for bankruptcy Sept. 31 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. The school's final class of students graduated in December.