BARRINGTON — Zion Bible College is on the verge of a deal that would see it move out of Barrington to a vacant school campus in Haverhill, Mass., according to a report in The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover.

Under the pending agreement, Hobby Lobby, a national chain of hobby stores, would buy the former campus of Bradford College and donate it to the Bible college, which has been in Barrington since 1985. According to The Eagle-Tribune, the chief executive officer of the Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby is a member of the Assemblies of God, the same religious denomination as the college.

The 260-student Bible college has been planning to move from its 40-acre campus at 27 Middle Highway since last year when it listed the property, which includes Belton Court, a former Peck mansion listed on the National Register of Historic Places, for sale for $13 million.

In April, the college announced that Liberty Capital Partners, a Barrington-based investment firm, had entered into a letter of intent to buy the land.

At the time, Barrington Town Council president Jeffrey S. Brenner welcomed the sale, saying James S. Gladney, the managing partner of Liberty Capital Partners, would redevelop the property “in a manner consistent with the needs of the town.”

Yesterday, Brenner said he hasn’t heard any more news about the deal.

A lawyer for Zion Bible College did not return a call seeking comment. Gladney could not be reached.

Bradford College, a liberal arts school, closed in 2000 because of financial problems. The report in The Eagle-Tribune said that the Bible college could open on the 18-acre campus in Haverhill, a city of 60,000 in the Merrimack Valley north of Boston, as soon as the fall semester of next year.

Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini told The Eagle-Tribune that Zion Bible College would use the money earmarked for buying the property to instead carry out renovations to its new campus. He said Monday that a purchase-and-sales agreement with Angelo Gordon & Co. of New York, the owner of the Bradford College campus, was close to being signed, according to the report. Fiorentini did not return a telephone message.

The Bible college was close to a deal to purchase the campus in Haverhill last year but pulled out, citing unforeseen costs of rehabilitating the property.

In 1985, Zion Bible Institute paid $5.25 million for the former campus of Barrington College and moved in weeks later. Trustees of Barrington College had decided to close the Barrington campus, occupied since 1950, and merge programs with Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.