Keith Toffling

Following three years of negotiations, the land known as Frat Row was sold to the University of Massachusetts last June, officially bringing to end an era of partying and pledging along North Pleasant Street.

The land – which used to be home to five fraternity and sorority houses before it was demolished – was bought by the university for $2.5 million, and could be used as an academic site, a UMass official said.

For years, Alpha Tau Gamma, Inc., the company that owned the land for decades, had been in talks with UMass officials.

After both sides went back and forth on an appropriate price tag, they finally settled on March 10, 2006, shaking hands on $2.5 million. It would be over a year before the closing would actually take place and the deal would be complete.

“The sale, which we first proposed to the chancellor on January 3, 2003, took four years,” said Jim Mulcahy, Treasurer of ATG, “but finally, all the paperwork was done.”

The grassy parcels on 375, 387, 389, 395, and 401 North Pleasant St. now belong to UMass, but were occupied by fraternities and sororities just a couple years ago.

After the deal to sell the houses to UMass was made official in 2006, ATG told the fraternity and sorority members living in the buildings that their leases would be up at the end of the 2005-06 academic year.

The buildings sat vacant as the 2006-07 academic year kicked off, and were demolished a couple months later. After the water systems and foundations were uplifted, and the land was seeded and graded, it was officially sold to UMass on June 27.

“We don’t have any immediate plans to develop the property,” said Edward Blaguszewski, Director of News and Information at UMass. He said in the future, the land could be used as an academic site, but nothing is set in stone.

Physical Plant officials and members of the Turf Management Program will be working on the parcels to improve upon the condition of the land, said Blaguszewski. Since it’s located at the entranceway of the campus, for now the university just wants to make it look inviting.

“We want to maintain that look,” said Blaguszewski. “As we access the master plan, that property can fit into that.”

Members of ATG celebrated the sale on Aug. 17 on the grass of their former lot. In one of his final public appearances in Amherst, Chancellor John V. Lombardi attended the Frat Row ceremony, offering final words on the land he recently helped purchase for the university.

One-fifth of the $2.5 million UMass shelled out to buy Frat Row was almost immediately donated back into the university system. Even before the deal was completed, ATG had planned to contribute $500,001 of the $2.5 million to an endowed professorship in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture.

Once the purchase was made, and the $2.5 million was deposited into the ATG bank, Mulcahy got in his car and drove to the UMass system offices in Boston to hand deliver the $500,001 donation check.

“I actually took the check and drove it to the UMass headquarters in Boston,” he said.

The money obtained through the sale has allowed ATG to be debt-free for the first time in almost 70 years, said Mulcahy. He said ATG took its first mortgage out in 1940, and has owed money since then.

With the $2 million leftover from the Frat Row sale, the company was able to pay off all its debt. “We have paid off all of our obligations,” he said.

For years, ATG received rent from the fraternity and sorority members living in the North Pleasant Street homes. Since the houses were unoccupied for several months while the sale was getting finalized, Mulcahy said ATG was strapped for cash.

“We went through a full year without any rate income,” said Mulcahy. The company had to account for a handful of expenses, including taxes, fire and liability insurance, and general upkeep of the property. During the period, Mulcahy said ATG borrowed some money from ATG alumni.

Although frat tenants were rushed out of the houses after the 2005-06 year, the houses remained in ATG’s possession until last June. One of the stipulations of the purchase-and-sales agreement was that ATG had to demolish the buildings before selling it to the university.

During the 11-month standstill, the vacant land went through a few quirky incidences. In late September 2006, someone broke into the empty houses, setting one of them on fire. Although no serious damage was reported, the arson attempt set ATG’s demolition deadlines off a little bit.

Last May, about a month before the closing, someone drove onto the land shortly after an afternoon rainstorm. Consequently, the adventurous driver’s truck got stuck in the mud. Police were called in and eventually, the man’s truck was towed off Frat Row.