Image courtesy of Utile Architecture & Planning

Berklee College of Music is expanding its Fenway campus with the acquisition of a residential development site approved for 400 apartments.

The 2 Charlesgate property was sold at a foreclosure auction in September to Boston-based Samuels & Associates, which sold the property to the music school last week, also for $28.1 million.

“The property presents an exciting and unique opportunity to address our acute need for more space in a way that connects our campus across the Fenway and increases Berklee’s visibility,” President Jim Lucchese wrote in an announcement to faculty and students.

Berklee will pay for the acquisition with donations and the school’s non-operating capital budget, Lucchese wrote. Universal Hub first reported the sale.

A Berklee spokesperson declined further comment on the school’s plans for the site.

Of Berklee’s current enrollment of 5,517 undergraduates, 4,019 live off-campus, according to data submitted by the school to the city of Boston on Oct. 1.

In September, Berklee laid off 70 employees, representing 3 percent of its total staff in response to financial pressures.

The Charlesgate West site is next to Berklee’s 132 Ipswich St., a property that has been part of the school’s real estate expansion plans since 2011. The Berklee Crossroads project was envisioned to provide a “substantial increase” in student housing, according to a 2022 institutional master plan submitted to the Boston Planning Department.

Following its 2022 merger with the Boston Conservatory, Berklee owned 25 buildings totaling nearly 1.1 million square feet. At the time, the school also leased 95,700 square feet in 11 buildings, according to a filing submitted to the Boston Planning Department.

In January 2024, Berklee opened a new 114-bed dormitory at 12 Hemenway St. after acquiring the apartment building from a private developer.