Episcopal Divinity School’s 8-acre campus for sale in Harvard Square

The Episcopal Divinity School is selling its 8-acre campus at 99 Brattle Street in Cambridge’s Harvard Square area as it prepares to decamp for Manhattan’s Union Theological Seminary in late 2018.

Because of its location, the property, which includes more than a dozen buildings totaling 155,374 square feet, will instantly become one of the biggest and most well-positioned commercial listings in the entire Boston region when the school officially puts it on the block sometime after June.

Episcopal Divinity has not disclosed an asking price yet. However, Cambridge Day’s Marc Levy notes that a July 2016 analysis prepared for school trustees said a sale could add $25.5 million to Episcopal Divinity’s assets by the start of the next decade.

In other words, the school could make a mint off the sale.

Or could it? For all of its size and its excellent location, there are a couple of complications that could toss a spanner in the works.

One, as Levy points out, it’s unlikely a developer would be able to raze the campus’ historic buildings and replace them with the sort of development (condos perhaps?) that would justify shelling out eight figures for the acreage in the first place.

And, two, Episcopal Divinity has a property deal with Cambridge’s Lesley University for some of the space. How does that school fit in to any sale?

Stay tuned.

• Eight acres near Harvard Square in play after Episcopal Divinity School NYC move [Day]