HAVERHILL - A local real estate agent with experience marketing and selling high-profile properties says the historic Kimball Tavern's greatest appeal to a private buyer would be as some kind of business.

That's exactly what Bradford College neighbors and alumni and some city officials are worried about. They say doing so would taint the tavern's charm and likely include modifications, such as signs and ramps for people with physical handicaps, that would compromise the building's historical significance.

A representative for the tavern's owner, Angelo Gordon & Co. of New York, said last week the company is working with real estate experts to market the tavern and wants to sell it as soon as possible. The representative, Andrew Jacobs, said the asking price has not yet been set. The property, which is assessed for $579,000, was briefly listed for sale in 2005 for around $600,000.

The dark brown, clapboard tavern and inn was built around 1690 by Benjamin Kimball, and was where farmers and mill owners met to found Bradford College in 1803. It is considered part of the Bradford College campus but is separate from it, less than a quarter-mile from the main campus.

The building faces Bradford Common and the busy intersection of South Main and Salem streets. It is a short distance from Bradford Square, a busy commercial area lined with strip malls and packed with stand-alone retail businesses, fast-food restaurants, banks, professional offices and a gas station.

"The tavern is a landmark, and that comes with a certain amount of cachet that would be valuable to the right buyer," said Realtor Frank Novak of Novak Finer Homes of Haverhill. "It's also at a prime location that would be very attractive for a business. The danger is that putting a business in there would compromise the building's historic significance."

The tavern property is zoned for a residence, requiring that an owner would have to apply for and receive a variance from the city to use it for a business. The owner would have to demonstrate he would suffer a hardship without the variance, city officials said.

Neighbors, many of whom have fought for more than five years to make sure Angelo Gordon Co. sold the front of the Bradford College campus to a buyer who would use it as a school, have indicated they will fight just as hard to make sure the tavern is preserved. Mayor James Fiorentini has also said he will "do everything in his power" to see the tavern is preserved. He called it "the foundation of the college" and "a historical treasure."

The front of the campus was sold last month to a buyer who intends to donate it to Zion Bible College, which plans to move from Rhode Island to Haverhill next summer and open for classes in the fall of 2008.

"If the sale (of the tavern) is going to be contingent on a variance, that's going to be a long and difficult process if there's neighborhood opposition, which there surely would be," said Novak, who is the listing agent for the high-profile, historic 140-acre Silsby Farm property on Salem Street.

Neighbors, the Bradford Alumni Association and city officials reacted with disappointment to news Angelo Gordon Co. is planning to sell the tavern to a private buyer. They said Angelo Gordon's business partner in the 2002 purchase of the college - GFI Partners - promised the tavern would be preserved and that it would be eventually donated to the city or a city group such as the Haverhill Historical Society. That promise was made to win the city's support for a condominium proposal on the back of the campus property, the groups have said.

Kristen Hollenbeck, director of the alumni association, said representatives from the GFI company told the association on at least two occasions that the tavern would be donated to the alumni association if the association was able to raise $250,000 for an endowment to maintain the building. The plan was that the association would share the building with the Haverhill Historical Society. The association would use it for offices and the society would use it for a public museum, Hollenbeck said.

Jacobs, the Angelo Gordon spokesman, said he is unaware of such a promise, and that GFI did not have authority to make a promise. Jacobs said his company has always been the majority owner and controller of the property.

The alumni association has raised $300,000 in cash and has more than $100,000 in written pledges for an endowment fund to maintain the tavern in perpetuity, Hollenbeck said. She said that's not nearly enough to purchase the property at market price and maintain the building, however, and that the association needs a partner to acquire it.

The tavern is Angelo Gordon Co.'s last real estate holding in Haverhill. Hollenbeck said she was told Zion officials wanted to acquire the tavern as part of its purchase of the larger campus, but were told it was not for sale. Angelo Gordon Co. needs the revenue from the sale of the tavern to offset all the money it lost because it took more than five years to sell the main campus, Jacobs said.