When Gwynedd Mercy University acquired a 150-acre property from Merck in 2018 for $12 million, it saw it as a chance to double its campus and outfit the building that stood on the property to complement its health care programs, writes Hilary Burns for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

However, once the pandemic hit, those plans changed.

“Between 2018 and now, we discovered that we had more than adequate space on the main campus,” said university President Deanne D’Emilio. “We also started to look at what would we need to do to fit out that building and started looking at the cost. At the same time, the pandemic was going on and the real estate market started to really heat up. We started to get unsolicited offers on the property.”

So the school decided to sell the property to Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners for $31.5 million. The sale boosted Gwynedd Mercy’s $41 million endowment by a whopping 74 percent and gave it breathing room following the pandemic-driven undergrad enrollment dip.

Among other things, the money will be invested in the health care innovation that was originally planned when the property was purchased.

Read more about Gwynedd Mercy University in the Philadelphia Business Journal.