Ave Maria law school buys Vineyards campus

BUYER: Ave Maria School of Law Inc. (officers: Thomas Monaghan, Kevin Cieply, Patrick Conlin, Thomas Garlick, James Fennessey, Richard Klaas, Adam Maida, Cathy Ruse, Ronald Rychlak, Michael Saadeh, James White, Edward Staros, Peter Carfagna and Frank Dewane), Naples
SELLER: Ave Maria University Inc.
PROPERTY: 1078 Commons Circle and 707 Vineyards Blvd., Naples
PRICE: $13 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Woodward Pires & Lombardo PA, Naples

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
The Ave Maria School of Law purchased its north Naples campus from Ave Maria University for $13 million.

The about 12.5-acre law school property features five main buildings, eight villas, two cabanas and a modular. The Roman Catholic law school has been leasing the Vineyards Boulevard campus from the university for the past six years, since it relocated from Ann Arbor, Mich.

“It is a classic win-win situation with the law school being able to own its own campus and the university being able to sell an asset that it never intended to hold on to long term,” Thomas Monaghan, chairman of the board and founder of Ave Maria School of Law, says in a press release.

No changes are planned for the campus in the near-term. However, Monaghan has expressed a long-term goal to move the law school to Ave Maria town.

Ave Maria School of Law and Ave Maria University are separately financed and managed.

The law school mortgaged the property to First Florida Integrity Bank for $7.5 million and received a second mortgage from Mary's Law Angels LLC for $5.6 million.