IU buys 57 pieces of real estate from IU Foundation for $23M—no word yet from either side about why

Last Sunday, as a part of its routine mapping of recent Monroe County property transfer records, The B Square reported the sale of several properties by Indiana University Foundation to the Indiana University Board of Trustees.

Involved in the transfers, all made on Sept. 18, 2025, were a total of 57 properties. The properties were grouped in 13 batches for the sale. Each batch was priced at under $2 million. The total came to about $23.38 million.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the IU Foundation was not paying any property taxes on the property. So the tax revenue to local units of government won’t change with the transfer to IU Board of Trustees. The 1099 forms for the IU Foundation show the nonprofit had about $3.4 billion in net assets in 2023.

Much of the real estate that was sold is around the edge of the campus and has a university-related use. As an example, one of the properties, at 3rd and Dunn streets, currently houses the university’s office of research administration. Other properties were vacant land, like the former strip mall on 10th Street. Still other properties have residential uses, like those along Bryan Avenue.

The properties were previously leased to the university by the foundation. According to an IU spokesperson, “There are no current plans to change the use of the properties being transferred.”

Except to acknowledge receipt of questions, neither the university nor the foundation have yet responded to B Square queries about why the university wanted to take over ownership of the real estate, why the IU Foundation wanted to divest itself of the property, or why the sales were batched the way they were.

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