After more than 125 years in St. Paul, Luther Seminary is looking to lean into online education and relocate to a much smaller physical campus.

Where will it land? Undetermined.

The seminary, an accredited graduate school of theology based in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood, was founded in Afton, Minn., in 1884 and moved to St. Paul in 1893. In a written announcement Tuesday, seminary officials said their board of directors voted unanimously to transition to a more “nimble” model and “initiate a process to seek new space in the Twin Cities area that aligns with its needs going forward.”

The seminary is to remain in St. Anthony Park through at least the 2026-2027 school year, though a transition to a new campus could take longer. “We’re don’t have a timeline on that yet,” said Luther Seminary President Robin Steinke, in an interview Tuesday. “We’ve got a lot of investigative work to do. That depends on where we find a home and the kind of repurposing that best serves the needs of this neighborhood … and helps us prioritize our mission.”

The seminary has 370 degree-seeking students, though some 8 million users annually access its resources from across the world, including daily online devotion, Bible study and sermon preparation.‘Sustainable over the long term’

Currently, about 70% of students primarily take their courses online while engaging in ministry in communities across the United States, while also visiting the campus for week-long intensive courses. Its degree programs, which include graduate degrees, masters of divinity and doctorates, are offered 100% tuition-free through the seminary’s endowment and fundraising, but growing maintenance costs associated with the more-than-century-old campus have become a burden.

“We need less property if we’re going to be a school without tuition,” Steinke said.

“We’re 95% philanthropically driven. We have increased our endowment. … It’s the deferred maintenance. It’s the snow in the winter. It’s the roof repair. It’s the boiler repair. It’s the water repair.”

Steinke said the goal is “to remain sustainable over the long term” and “steward our resources more effectively and serve students and learners from all walks of life.” In an era of hybrid online classes, that includes “strategic, periodic in-person learning,” she said.

“The way students learn and prepare for ministry has changed. Now is the right time to align our resources with that reality and evolve how we deliver on our mission,” she said.

The seminary’s active uses are concentrated on the north campus — spanning 10 acres — which consists of three major administrative buildings, a small chapel and nine single-family homes for students.

Housing development

The seminary, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, entered into a purchase agreement this year with Edina-based housing developer Lifestyle Communities, which hopes to buy the entirety of the 16-acre lower campus, which has land parcels in both St. Paul and Lauderdale.

The property includes Northwestern Hall, Stub Hall and Breck Woods. That transaction is in its due diligence period, and closing on the purchase is expected in 2026.

Lifestyle Communities previously opened the Zvago Cooperative, a retirement community, next to Gullixson Hall at the east end of the seminary campus in St. Anthony Park.

In 2022, Luther Seminary announced a previous deal to sell the lower campus was on hold, given cold feet from developer Inland Development Partners, which the school said had blamed increased construction costs and the city’s then-new rent control policy.

Under community opposition, Luther Seminary last year canceled a separate arrangement with Ramsey County, which had planned to lease the long-vacant Stub Hall dormitory and use it as an emergency “Safe Space” shelter, which was to provide 64 men’s and women’s beds through a partnership with Model Cities.