Buyers make offers for OCC’s Rabbit Island

The Orange Coast College Foundation has received three proposals to purchase Rabbit Island, the British Columbian property that it voted to put up for sale earlier this year.

The foundation, which has overseen academic programs on Rabbit Island since receiving it as a gift in 2002, posted an online request for proposals at the start of May. Executive director Doug Bennett said that as of Friday afternoon, three Canadian real estate agents had submitted proposals to buy the island.

The college’s marine programs committee plans to review the proposals at the end of next week and give a recommendation to the foundation at its May 17 meeting.

The deadline for proposals is 4 p.m. May 10. Bennett said the foundation still hadn’t settled on an asking price for the island.

“Part of what we’re doing is using the real estate brokers to give us some ballparks on what they think the island might be worth,” he said.

The foundation voted to sell the property in March after a study group of field experts agreed with the foundation’s view that the island was valuable academically but a drain on finances.

This summer, professors are scheduled to hold their last series of classes on the island.