More Chinese-owned property in Nashua comes into focus

Another piece of Chinese owned property in Nashua has come to the public’s attention — the former Daniel Webster College property, encompassing some 52 acres.

Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess encouraged the Board of Aldermen on Sept. 9 to pass a resolution giving him the authority to seek state and/or federal funds to purchase the property, currently owned by Xinhua Education Consulting Services Corp.

“It is owned by a Chinese entity, and it has sat in our community, unproductive, for such a long time, for years,” he said at the aldermen’s meeting. “And if we could obtain the funds to purchase that property, which we believe could be purchased for around $20 million, we could do something productive — housing, something good there, rather than just nothing. And then it would be owned by American citizenship, rather than a Chinese corporation.”

Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess, right, walks downtown with Director of Economic Development Tim Cummings (Photo by Allegra Boverman)

Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess (right) walks downtown with Director of Economic Development Tim Cummings

Nashua has become a ground zero of sorts in the debate of whether Chinese corporations should be able to own property, particularly sites near sensitive infrastructure such as airports, defense manufacturing and water supply.

A subsidiary of Nongfu Spring, the largest bottled water producer in China, purchased commercial property in Nashua near a public water supply watershed early last year.

A state law passed during the 2025 legislative session and signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte prohibits entities and individuals from China (as well as Iran, Syria, Russia or North Korea) from occupying or controlling any property within the state of New Hampshire. There is a similar law on the books in the state of Florida.

But the law went into effect long after both the purchases by Nongfu Spring and Xinhua Education Consulting Services.

Lawmakers expressed concern about proximity of purchases to what they described as “protected facilities,” including the New Hampshire National Guard in Concord, New Hampshire Army Aviation Support Facility in Concord, Readiness Center of the 197th Artillery Brigade in Manchester, Pease Air National Guard Base in Portsmouth, Space Force Station in New Boston, and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

Donchess described the Daniel Webster property as “just as close, closer to the airport, nearly as closer to the water supply, closer to BAE, same distance from Hanscom — all the concerns that were expressed.”

BAE Systems is a military contractor in Nashua. Hansom is a reference to Hanscom Air Force Base, a primary center for developing and acquiring electronic command, control, communications, intelligence, and network systems, including radar, cyber defenses and battle management systems.

Xinhua Education Consulting Services Corp. is a U.S. company, founded in 2018 by Sui Liu and David Lu, and registered as a corporation in good standing with the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office.

The corporation owns not only the former Daniel Webster College campus in New Hampshire, but also the former Saint Paul’s College campus in Virginia.

The company’s name, “Xinhua,” translates to “New China,” and while it shares a name with the Chinese state news agency, it appears to be a separate commercial entity. While the company had made investments in American educational properties, its emphasis seems to be on acquisition. It is offering no educational services on its U.S. properties at present.

There is a China Xinhua Education Group, which describes itself as “the largest private higher education group in the Yangtze River Delta.” But it does not appear to have a connection with Xinhua Education Consulting Services.

Daniel Webster College closed in May 2017 after its owner/operator, ITT Education Services, declared bankruptcy. Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) provided a “teach-out” for students after the closure.

The college property was up for sale in a bankruptcy auction.

SNHU bid successfully for the purchase of the school’s airport flight center and tower to establish its own engineering and aeronautics programs.

According to deed information on file with the Hillsborough County Register of Deeds, SNHU paid $410,000 for those properties as part of the bankruptcy process.

At the bankruptcy auction Oct. 23, 2017, according to the deed information, Sui Liu offered $11.6 million for the rest of the Daniel Webster property, beating out other, lower bidders that included real estate developer Brady Sullivan.

The deed describes both SNHU and Sui Liu as “purchasers in good faith,” per the federal Bankruptcy Code.

The part of the campus controlled by Xinhua Education Consulting Services has remained unused since its purchase. Likewise, according to media reports, the Saint Paul’s campus in Virginia has remained unused since its purchase in 2017.

In addition to the college property, the bankruptcy purchase included two single family homes — at 137 Pine Hill Road and 139 Pine Hill Road in Nashua, both showing Xinhua Education Consulting Services Corporation as the owner.

Assessment information on file with the city of Nashua shows the former college property is valued at $18.4 million.

The house at 137 Pine Hill Road has an assessed value of $307,600. The house at 139 Pine Hill is assessed at $467,300.

There was no communication with Nashua officials at the time of the purchase. “They don’t really communicate with the city. We try to reach them; we get nothing,” Mayor Donchess was quoted as saying at the time.

The same remains true today as officials are waiting to see official documentation or hear from company officers about what Nongfu Spring intends for the property it bought for $67 million as a bottling manufacturing facility at 80 Northwest Blvd.

“Haven’t heard a word,” said John Boisvert, CEO of the Pennichuck Water System.

The bottling plant would get its water from Pennichuck, the city’s water supplier. Pennichuck, a utility owned by the city of Nashua, has other clients as well, such as the Budweiser bottling plant in Merrimack.

Boisvert has said early preliminary inquiries from Nongfu Spring indicated a need of about 2 million gallons of water a day for the facility. According to Boisvert, the system has more than enough excess capacity to fulfill that request, one they cannot deny based on the Public Utility Commission regulations it must adhere to.

There is also the matter of permitting and licensing by both the NH Department of Health and Human Services and the NH Department of Environmental Services.

Correspondence in an NHBR right-to-know request with DHHS show the facility is in a build-out phase to create the interior space for the equipment and personnel to operate the bottling plant. One February document indicated the build-out would take up to a year.

More recent documents made available through a second right-to-know request show a continued back and forth between the build-out contractor — Clayco Design & Engineering of Chicago — and DHHS officials about how state permitting could affect the building layout and retrofit timeline.

In an April 29 email, a Clayco project engineer emailed DHHS personnel to inquire about a phone meeting “to discuss impact of the state permit on the local construction permits. Our understanding is the state permit could affect process and packaging equipment layouts … We want to clearly understand if and how state issuance of this permit will impact other aspects of the project timeline/construction.”

Chuck Metcalf, supervisor of the DHHS Food Protection Section, replied: “From my perspective I am waiting for the floor plan application to be submitted to my office for review. I believe it would be hard over the phone to try and foresee issues that might come up prior to seeing the proposed layout. I am willing to have a conversation with everyone if you feel it would be beneficial though.”