(Photo courtesy of Twitter)

Trine University, a private, Indiana-based college, opened a satellite campus in Peoria four years ago. Now that campus is closing after the city paid the school millions in incentives.

Peoria’s 2012 agreement with Trine says the city would give them $960,000 after the school opened and would pay them up to $1.5 million if student enrollment was lower than expected.

Trine’s enrollment stayed low: ultimately Peoria paid the private university $2.4 million in total, and now the school is closing this June.

Peoria economic development director Scott Whyte says the city found out it was closing in the fall because the school was operating in the red.

“It was just a mutual recognition that the market we all thought was there didn’t pan out the way it was envisioned, so it was just kind of a mutual wind down,” Whyte said.   

Trine wasn't the only private university partnership — Peoria officials also agreed to pay Indiana-based Huntington University about $2.5 million to open another satellite campus last year.

The five-year agreement with Trine stipulated that half of the money would be given after opening the campus and making an academic plan. The second half would be used to help enroll students.

Whyte says this won’t turn the city off from looking into future partnerships with universities — a $3 million agreement with Arizona State University is currently being considered in study session at City Council.