URI Closing Alton Jones Conference Center

[RF1]

Citing financial struggles, URI decides to close its Alton Jones campus
https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/we ... es-campus/

[OBRAM]

I went there for a conference in 1996, November, election day week.
The food was fantastic.

[The Dude]

A shame. My cousin works/worked there. Hopefully it can reopen one day?...

[ramster]

The release doesn’t sound like there will be a reopening. Fact that it says URI has been struggling for years and ha e made many efforts to improve the financial situation.

Said of the 17 URI employees, URI would try to offer or find them jobs at URI.


A spokesperson for the university said the Alton Jones centers have been “struggling financially for several years.”

“The decision to close them in early July comes after many efforts by the university to improve the financial situation,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

[NYGFan_Section208]

I'm gonna miss that place...

[RF1]

I wonder what use URI has planned for this 2,300 acre property. It is one of the largest single owned/operated tracts of land in the entire state.

W. Alton Jones Campus
https://web.uri.edu/wajc/

[rhodyruckus]

I wonder what use URI has planned for this 2,300 acre property. It is one of the largest single owned/operated tracts of land in the entire state.

W. Alton Jones Campus
https://web.uri.edu/wajc/

Peeling off the conference facilities and immediate land for ongoing commercial use to a wedding/events/conference provider and maybe a small solar site in one of the cleared areas, while holding and preserving the wooded and wetland areas for continued university use makes sense. What makes me nervous is my guess is any sale will provide funds directly to the state's infamous "General Treasury" and URI will never see benefits from the sale.