The pizza joint just east of Southwest 13th Street, has been bought by the University of Florida Foundation, and will stay open until at least summer 2017. UF officials haven't decided what to do with the property.

Another Gainesville institution will soon fade from the local landscape as West University Avenue continues its facelift.

Leonardo’s By the Slice, just east of Southwest 13th Street and home of Leonardo’s for decades, has been purchased by the University of Florida Foundation, the school said in a news release.

UF said the deal was initiated by Leonardo’s owner Steve Solomon and requires Leonardo’s to stay open until at least the summer of 2017. The university is studying the best use for the quarter-acre property, Lee Nelson, UF’s real estate director, said in the release.

The Foundation purchased the property and building from Maviro Corp., which has offices in Buffalo, New York, and St. Petersburg, and had owned the building since 1976.

The release said Solomon and the property owner approached UF several months ago about buying the property after the 69-year-old businessman began to consider scaling back his commitments.

The UF Foundation owns the adjacent Circle K gas station and convenience store on the southeast corner of Southwest 13th Street and West University Avenue as well as a vacant lot just south of the gas station. UF and Viking Companies — the lead developer of Celebration Pointe — have been in talks about partnering on an eight-story building that would combine those properties with one Viking owns to the east.

Solomon said in the release he plans to focus more on Leonardo's 706 at 706 W. University Ave., the original site of Leonardo’s By the Slice. As for what will happen to Leonardo's By the Slice and the adjacent Bistro 1245, which he also owns, Solomon said he's considering integrating those operations to Leonardo's 706.

“The university is facilitating what we want to happen,” Solomon said in the release. “We’ve always had a great relationship with the university. We’ve been collaborating with the university for 43 years. It makes me feel really good to do this with them.”

Nelson called the purchase mutually beneficial.

“This is a transaction that’s good for Leonardo’s, good for the university and allows everyone to achieve their goals,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure we have an influence on the neighborhoods surrounding the university, and the strategic development plan on which the university has been working has recognized the importance of this intersection.”

Solomon said increased competition, students’ changing tastes and the growing effort of maintaining multiple locations factored into his decision.

“Things change,” he said. “It’s getting harder to stay open. All of that weighs heavily on my mind.”

The purchase of the iconic college town pizzeria, which opened in 1973, may signal the next step in the UF effort to work with developers to transform and redevelop West University Avenue between campus and downtown. University officials and consultants working on a long-term plan for development on and near campus have an eye toward transforming the eclectic stretch of businesses that includes some aged storefronts into multi-use development with apartments for professionals built over first-floor retail and restaurant space.

UF has already purchased a city block that includes the Unified Training Center martial arts business, the former concert venue The Jam and tattoo studios. An Atlanta developer plans to demolish the storefronts to then build a six-story apartment building called Inception at Innovation Square with 4,000 square feet of ground floor retail and 110 apartments geared toward professionals working in the area.

Two other multi-story apartment complexes are in various stages of planning to replace the nightclub at 238 W. University Ave. and the former Independent Florida Alligator building at 1105 W. University Ave.

The UF release did not disclose the purchase price for the property, and the transaction did not show up in a search of county records online.