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The founder of a Vermont-based whiskey brand wants to give away a college campus that he bought during the pandemic — on the condition the new owner shares his vision for “the revival of our country and our civilization.”
Raj Peter Bhakta is offering to gift the campus of 185-year-old now-defunct Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont — an asset he estimates would cost $200 million to rebuild — to a Catholic or Christian institution that shares his belief that a return to Western civilization “is predicated on a spiritual revival.”
The 50-year-old WhistlePig and Bhakta Spirits founder credits his entry into the industry to President Donald Trump — who fired Bhakta when he was a contestant during the second season of “The Apprentice.”
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“I got into the whiskey business by getting fired by the sitting president of the United States,” Bhakta told Digital.
After a failed congressional run involving an elephant and a mariachi band, he found himself “dead broke and alone” on a run-down Vermont farm during the 2008 recession. Identifying a gap in the high-end American whiskey market, he founded WhistlePig.
Raj Peter Bhakta, founder of Bhakta Spirits, is giving away the campus formerly known as Green Mountain College after purchasing it in 2020. (Bhakta Spirits)
Despite the brand’s ascent, Bhakta’s tenure at WhistlePig ended in a high-profile corporate showdown.
Following a dispute with the company’s board, Bhakta sold his stake in WhistlePig in 2019, according to his website, and “embarked on a sabbatical in search of new discoveries in the world of spirits.”
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Armed with the proceeds from his departure, Bhakta launched his namesake spirits company in 2020.
Bhakta then turned his attention to what he describes as the “epic, large-scale” disaster of American higher education. In the summer of 2020, amid the uncertainty of COVID lockdowns, he purchased the shuttered Green Mountain College campus at auction for $4.5 million. That was much lower than its $20 million original asking price.
“There’s a deeper, more fundamental need in this country, and that is to go back to our Christian roots.”
“I bought this place, and then quickly learned that starting a college was a little bit more complicated than I had originally envisioned, especially while starting a new spirit startup,” he said.
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His vision for the campus is rooted in the belief that the nation’s values are eroding and that a technical or secular fix is not enough.
“There’s a deeper, more fundamental need in this country, and that is to go back to our Christian roots,” Bhakta said.
A partial view of the campus of Green Mountain College in Vermont is shown. Bhakta bought it a year after the school closed. (Bhakta Spirits)
While he originally intended to lead the new institution himself, Bhakta is now vetting “credible potential beneficiaries” who possess the “execution capacity” to fulfill his vision.
His first preference is a Catholic institution — followed by a Christian group.
“And if I can’t find one of those, I’ll sell it,” he added. “But I don’t suspect that I’ll have to sell it.”
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Green Mountain College closed in 2019, citing declining enrollment. It was one of three private colleges in Vermont that closed that year, along with Southern Vermont College and the College of St. Joseph.
Sarah Pelkey, former community development director for the town of Poultney, told The Associated Press in 2020 that Green Mountain College is “a beautiful space, a beautiful campus — and somebody definitely got a steal.”
Green Mountain College closed due to declining enrollment in 2019. (Bhakta Spirits)
Digital reached out to Pelkey, who recently left her post to join the Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region, for additional comment.
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Bhakta is firm about his convictions.
“We’ve had two great awakenings in this country before, and I think we’re at the dawn, God willing, of a third great awakening,” said Bhakta.
“And that will hopefully, by God’s grace, lead to the revival of this great country and this great civilization.”
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He added, “That, incidentally, is worth fighting for.”
His website notes, among other things: “We know that mankind’s greatest achievements flow from humility and service, and that humility and service lie at the heart of our destinies.”
