Lawrence developer Tom Fritzel won an auction on Saturday for a three-story building at 1043 Ind., a Kansas University official said. The winning bid was $375,000.

Theresa Gordzica, KU’s chief financial officer, said Fritzel beat out a small handful of other bidders to earn the right to purchase the former Varsity House building owned by KU.

She said the university will use the money to address its ongoing deferred maintenance backlog.

KU had decided to sell the property at the request of the surrounding neighborhood and after mounting repair costs made the building cost-prohibitive to rehabilitate.