A week after Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Jeremy R. Knowles announced that the Inn at Harvard building would revert to FAS control in 13 years, another University administrator has said that FAS has the legal right to take over the building at any point.

According to Director of University and Commercial Real Estate Scott Levitan, FAS may assume control over the building even before 2013, the year when debt on the building is expected to be fully repaid

"There was always an understanding that FAS could take the building at any time and convert it to academic use," Levitan said.

Knowles' announcement, according to Levitan, was a reasonable estimate for the time when most of the original $12 million debt would be paid off on the hotel, which was built in 1991 and is owned by FAS.

Despite the revelation, Levitan said there have been no plans as of yet for FAS to assume control of the building earlier than originally planned.

"There is no specific date when that would occur," he said. "It could occur at the discretion of the Faculty, whenever they wanted it to happen."

If the Faculty decided to do that before hotel profits pay off the debt, FAS would need to retire the debt up front.

Harvard's central administration and Harvard Planning and Real Estate built and continue to manage the property, located on a piece of land across the street from Barker Center and between Mass. Ave. and Harvard St.