Wayne State University's Oakland Center is closing in January.

The Detroit-based university's satellite at 33737 12 Mile Rd. in Farmington Hills will be shuttered and put up for sale by the end of the year, said Ahmad Ezzeddine, WSU's associate vice president for educational outreach and international programs.

The decision was made because of "all the investments we are making downtown, and our centers at Schoolcraft (College), Macomb Community College and soon, Oakland Community College."

Every semester, anywhere between 1,500 and 1,800 students take a variety of courses in the building, which WSU bought in the early 1990s, Ezzeddine said. Complete degree programs are not offered there, although it had been discussed less than 10 years ago.

"The focus of the Oakland Center was to provide convenience to the students," he said. "When it was bought, it was before Detroit was the way it is now and before we had strong partnerships with community colleges. Now that we have both, we are consolidating."

Oakland Center is 97,000 square feet and was built in 1981 on 16.4 acres on 12 Mile north of I-696 and west of Farmington Road, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.