Telegraph FILE PHOTO A lone traffic cone stands at an entrance to the Daniel Webster College campus, where little has changed over the past year.

NASHUA – More than a year after its new owner came on board, very little seems to have changed at the 50-acre campus once home to Daniel Webster College.

“The owners are still trying to get institutions interested in the property,” Mike Diffily, a spokesman for the reported owner, said recently. “Nothing has happened that I know of.”

The owner is identified as Sui Liu, reportedly a Chinese national who as of late last year was being represented by David Lu, a Virginia-based attorney.

Shortly after Liu purchased the property at auction for $11.6 million, reports surfaced that the Chinese University of Hong Kong was behind the deal. However, university officials promptly denied those reports.

Daniel Webster College was founded in the late 1960s as New England Aeronautical Institute, a two-year school that focused on aeronautical engineering and flight instruction.

The college began its rapid descent into financial trouble shortly after it was acquired by ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit entity that soon became the focus of a federal investigation for allegedly leaving students stranded with high debt and few job prospects.

In the meantime, Manchester-based Southern New Hampshire University acquired Daniel Webster’s control tower and hangar for roughly $400,000.

That allowed the school to remain open for the remainder of the 2016-17 school year. The former school graduated its final class in May 2017.

Nashua Director of Economic Development Tim Cummings previously said he knew few details of what the new owner planned for the site, and described the process as “slow moving.”

At the time, Cummings described Liu as “a high net-worth” individual from China, who was hoping to open an institution of higher learning in the U.S.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com, or @Telegraph_DeanS.

Newsletter