OCC on the verge of selling Rabbit Island

Orange Coast College appears on the verge of selling Rabbit Island, the British Columbian property it put on the market earlier this year, as a Canadian businessman has made a $50,000 deposit on the land.

At the OCC Foundation’s regular meeting on campus Thursday evening, member Dave Grant said the prospective buyer had offered the school $2.4 million for Rabbit Island. The businessman had asked his name not be released. Grant and other members said he intends to use it as a family retreat.

“I think we’ve identified a very motivated buyer,” said foundation member Rush Hill.

Grant said the foundation had another interested party in the wings in case the first buyer backed out of the deal. He added that while the foundation was selling Rabbit Island, it was considering bidding on an area of Catalina Island that could be used as a field station for research and classes.

The foundation, which received Rabbit Island in 2002 as a gift from yachtsman Henry Wheeler, announced last fall it was considering selling the property due to the high cost of maintaining it.

A number of students and faculty members implored the school to hold onto it.

After an outside study group declared in February that the island was too expensive, however, the foundation voted to sell it. A number of Canadian real estate brokers expressed interest in buying the property, and Hill and foundation Executive Director Doug Bennett traveled to Vancouver in May to meet with the prospective buyers.

The final session of Rabbit Island summer classes, including kayaking, photography and biology, is underway.