If you build it, they will come.

That is the hope of Florida evangelist Tommie Zito as he works to convert a defunct college campus in Vermont — the US state with the lowest percentage of Christians — into a new “Christ-centered university.”

“We feel like God’s leading is here to put this college in the least-churched state in the United States,” said Zito, speaking via video call on Monday in his first in-depth interview since signing a purchase agreement for the property.

Zito expects a charter class at the nonprofit university in August 2027 and is currently seeking accreditation from the New England Commission of Higher Education, the region’s primary accrediting body for major colleges and universities.

Z University — to rise up on the sprawling former campus of Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont — will be the first of nine evangelical schools Zito plans to unveil worldwide, the traveling preacher said. The first wave will include schools in Canada, Italy, Dubai, Poland and Sri Lanka. The second wave will bring Z University to Japan, Ireland and the UK. 

“I’m sure it probably wasn’t their first choice to have a Christian university take over this beautiful campus,” Zito, 52, said of the locals. “Vermont and New England are not pro-church, let’s just say. We want them to know that I’m coming in here — we’re coming in here — to serve.”

Whiskey mogul Raj Peter Bhakta, a former “Apprentice” contestant, picked up the 115-acre property at auction in 2020 for $4.5 million — when the town’s population was 3,020 — marking a steep discount from its prior asking price, following the school’s 2019 closure amid declining enrollment. 

The founder of WhistlePig Whiskey planned to turn it into a luxury resort before being stymied by local authorities. In March, Bhakta offered the property for free to any Christian/Catholic institution, which shares his mission to reshape America. 

In the end, “we purchased it for a legit price,” said Zito, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida. “He gave us a fair price.”

Both the seller and the buyer agreed not to disclose the price at this juncture.

Zito, who is a disciple of prominent charismatic Pentecostal evangelist and pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, wants to show potential donors that he’s putting his money where his mouth is.

Rather than keep a $1 million personal gift from a benefactor, Zito used it as a down payment toward the purchase of the 26-building property, which has dorms, classrooms, athletic facilities and more than 100 acres of farmland.

The deal won’t close until the fall, so there’s still time for Bhakta to bestow the property on Zito.

“What I do understand is that, as according to the original plan and Raj’s intent, there is and will be a significant philanthropic aspect to both the final agreement and to the execution of the arrangement,” Bhakta’s spokesperson said, noting the whiskey maven is traveling internationally.

Bhakta previously estimated the property — filled with dorms, classrooms, athletic facilities and more than 100 acres of farmland — could cost up to $200 million to fully restore in addition to the roughly $1 million in yearly operating costs and another $1.5 million needed for ongoing upkeep.

Mountain-moving faith 

The Vermont site feels like divine inspiration to Zito, who previously scouted other opportunities, including an $8 million 5.6-acre church campus in Savannah, Georgia.

“It was an historic college and all we’re doing is taking it back, rebirthing it back, to its roots,” Zito said. “Ultimately, it’s going to be a blessing for Poultney, I really believe, and for the region.”

“It’s going to be an economic blessing,” he continued. “It’s going to bring life back — and not that there’s not life there right now, but there’s some definitely some areas around that you know could use some revitalization.”

A West Virginia University dropout, Zito established Zoe South Beach, a bible school based in a church building in the Miami area about 15 years ago, which turned out missionaries and preachers.

“We ran it for [about five] years,” Zito said. “But I just felt to push pause on it about 10 years ago. And I knew something was coming legitimate.”

Bhakta’s offering fits the bill.

Bhakta sought someone who “has a vision aligned with the revival of the United States and Western Civilization,” he said in his pitch for the property, starting with “the spiritual revival of our Christian faith.”

“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,” he added.

That same week he learned about Bhakta’s words, Zito had unknowingly preached on the Third Great Awakening.

Z University, named for Zito, will “talk from a Christ-centered, biblical worldview,” he said, noting that many prestigious universities started as religious institutions.

Eventually Z University’s curriculum will go from A to Z — or rather Zito — with schools of evangelism, leadership, business, government, digital media and communications. The school will be “heavy on the digital side as well with AI.”

Tuition will be comparable to those found at existing Christian colleges. At Grand Canyon University, for example, the nonprofit Christian school has kept its base tuition at exactly $16,500 per year.

“I don’t do things to make money on it,” he said. “We’re going to make it as affordable as we can. And that will depend on donor base, endowment, and all of that.”

Tough sell

The town may worry about a future filled with prayers instead of property taxes if the campus goes nonprofit.

Zito admits that convincing staff to move to the school will require a leap of faith because “it’s out in the country.”

He added: “You drive for a while without seeing something. So, it’s got to be the right people that want to relocate there.”

And getting students could be difficult in “the preacher’s graveyard,” the long-held nickname for New England, home to the most secularized and least religious states in the country.

“The world has a terrible image of what Christianity is,” Zito said. “We’re known for what we’re against rather than what we are for.” He said his mission is simply to “preach the gospel.” Zito has preached 15,000 times in his career.

Zito believes he is standing on holy ground once more.

But Zito’s hands-on, traveling ministry style actually closely mirrors the spirit of the Methodist circuit riders who founded the original Green Mountain College in 1834, then under a different name. 

It’s even similar in what’s now known as the Ivy League. Harvard, Yale and Princeton universities were all established in the colonial era to train religious leaders.

Plans for what Zito called the “beautiful, mini Harvard-looking” property call for remodeling about 30% of the campus, but no major changes as “the campus is in fantastic shape,” he noted.

“Raj Bhakta has done an amazing job,” he added. “He pays his people really well and they take care of that property.”

At capacity, the school can handle 1,000 students and sleep 850. 

Zito plans to close the deal in the fall to better accommodate everyone’s schedules — Zito is on the road 40-something weeks of the year, mostly internationally — and so he can “push the expenses back a few months. I just wanted time because everything happened quick,” he said. 

Plus, Bhakta has to move out. 

Bhakta Spirits will relocate its headquarters to Shoreham, Vermont.

“There is a lot of whiskey there,” Zito said. “The whiskey is coming out and Tommie is coming in.”