Story originally published in the Anderson Independent Mail.

The last two months have been monumental for Anderson University: Two announcements have come within an acre of quadrupling the university’s size.

Anderson University’s Board of Trustees agreed to purchase the Anderson County Fair and Expo Center, located on Williamston Road, the university’s President Evans Whitaker said. Whitaker made the announcement about the addition of the 78-acre tract to a packed audience at Henderson Auditorium on Monday.

“This is a dream come true for Anderson University,” Whitaker said.

Contracts should be signed within a month after nearly a year of serious discussions about the property, officials said. Whitaker would not elaborate on the cost of the fairgrounds, only saying that it was an opportunity the trustees could not pass up.

A portion of the added acreage could be used next fall, Whitaker said.

In 1911, the campus — then a college — started with 32 acres and $100,000. In 2005, the institution changed from Anderson College to Anderson University, with 68 acres. Then in September, the Whitaker announced that John and Marie Pracht were giving 125 acres, also along Williamston Road, to the university.

Now, the addition of the fairgrounds brings the campus’s total size to 271 acres.

Strates Shows has owned the fairgrounds since 1982. The property includes several buildings on the fair facility as well as several areas used for parking lots and a few small homes.

Whitaker said the university will purchase all of the property owned by the Strates Shows in Anderson County. For the near future, the university will continue to rent out the homes, he said. Long-term plans have still not been set.

In his announcement, Whitaker said the university has cheated death twice in its nearly 100-year history. And all of that time, it has been land-locked, which has severely limited its ability to grow.

For example, there’s only room on the current campus to build additional dorm space for about 200 students. And the athletic programs are seriously cramped.

Anderson University Athletic Director Nancy Simpson said the soccer and softball fields overlap each other. The tennis racket stringing room is housed in a closet. There are no practice fields, coaches offices are spread across the campus, the wrestling team practices in a makeshift space and the university doesn’t have its own baseball stadium, Simpson said.

“We’ve been doing a lot of borrowing,” Simpson said. “And we are grateful for that. But having a home of our own will be so exciting. Everyone here is just on top of the world.”

He said he hopes the university’s athletic department could use some of the land, with a minimum amount of changes at first.

In the short term, land could be used for the addition of soccer and lacrosse fields, a track and the conversion of at least one of the six buildings on the campus into a wrestling facility. But the long-term goals could be adding a baseball stadium, the addition of a driving range for golf and the revival of the university’s equestrian program.

The space could also be used for campus housing and academic programs.

James Lusk, the chair of the university’s board of trustees, said eventually the only other option for expanding student housing would be purchasing homes, one at a time.

“It took us almost 100 years to go from 32 acres to 68 acres on the main campus,” Lusk said. “We just couldn’t wait another hundred years.”

Jay Strates, whose family owned the fairgrounds, said the decision to sell the land was an economic one. He said the utilities and taxes on the facility had just become too much as the facility faced increasing competition from other large venues in the Upstate.

“There are so many venues there now competing for the events in the Upstate, it just wasn’t making sense to have a year-round facility,” Strates said. .

He said the taxes on the grounds was about $40,000 each year.

Now, local leaders and business owners say they think the university’s expansion could have a serious effect on the corridor leading out of the city on U.S. 29 North. Already, Anderson University’s economic impact to the community is more than $90 million annually, the university’s spokesman Barry Ray said.

The purchase could help the college with recruiting — thus with the economy of that entire neighborhood, they said.

“Most cities of our size would die for a university downtown,” Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts said. “This could increase the enrollment at the university and that gives us more of an opportunity to keep those graduates here. That could open us up to more knowledge-based economies. So if Anderson University does well, the city of Anderson will do well.”

Glenn Brill, the head of Anderson County Visitor’s and Convention Bureau, said the expansion could bring more people into the area for athletic events and possibly summer camps — another possible economic benefit.

The only possible down side, Roberts said, is the fact that the purchase of the land takes the property off the city’s tax rolls since Anderson University is a non-profit organization. However, its economic benefit will likely balance that out, he and the mayor said.

“There are a lot of things I think it would draw,” Roberts said. “I think it will be great. I think the presence of the university there would enhance that whole area of town.”