"You just don't get an opportunity like this every day to be able to acquire something of this scale that has buildings that are usable. There's a lot of infrastructure in place," Carnaroli said.
Penn will pay about $13 million under an agreement being negotiated with DuPont, he said. The agreement is expected to become final next month.
DuPont approached the university, which occupies 260-plus acres in its West Philadelphia neighborhood, about the possibility of a sale, Carnaroli said. The company closed its auto-paint operation there in 2009 as the economy soured.
The purchase was approved by the university's board of trustees, in town this week for meetings.
Most immediately, the university plans to relocate its transit operations facility from the 3200 block of Walnut Street, Carnaroli said. The university will lose that transit space when it starts construction of its nanotechnology center in February at 32d Street and Walnut.
Some third parties have expressed interest in other parts of the property, particularly the green space and fields, he said.
The purchase is one of the university's most significant, Carnaroli said.
In 2006, the university launched a $1.94 billion, more-than-two-decade plan to develop the west bank of the river and better tie the university community to Center City.
That project aims to transform 40 acres from Walnut Street to just below South Street on the campus' eastern edge into athletic fields and recreation space, condos, research centers, shops, and restaurants.
