Morris Brown building to go to auction Tuesday

Morris Brown College officials were scrambling Monday to stop — for the third time — the forced sale of one of its campus buildings.

Jordan Hall is scheduled to be auctioned Tuesday on the Fulton County Courthouse steps if Morris Brown doesn’t make good on a $13.1 million construction loan issued in 1996. The building contains classrooms and an art gallery.

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Mark Davis/mrdavis@ajc.com

Jordan Hall could be auctioned Tuesday.

Higher education

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Since Jan. 1, Jordan Hall has twice been scheduled for foreclosure sale. Both in January and in February, investors halted the procedure.

On Monday, a college spokeswoman said that administration officials were scrambling to find donations and pleading for a third reprieve.

“It’s touch and go,” said Bunnie Jackson Ransom, a Morris Brown spokeswoman. “A deal to provide interim cash flow has not been consummated at this time. I’m sitting here with two press releases, one that says the foreclosure sale is going to happen and the other that says that Morris Brown has again been spared.”

The financially beleaguered college recently averted closing its doors permanently when the city of Atlanta extended a Feb. 17 deadline for Morris Brown to pay $214,000 in long overdue water bills.

Ransom said Morris Brown will survive even it loses Jordan Hall.

“It’s just one piece of property on the edge of campus,” Ransom said. “The dorms will be open, faculty and staff will show up to work and students will be in class.”