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The city of Huber Heights discussed the possibility of purchasing the former LaMendola Elementary School building, but the new owners of the property already have put it on the market.
Concept 1 Academy LLC co-owner Tari Darr said the property is now listed on the nationwide MLS system, with a listing price of $250,000 — a move that comes a week after city officials talked about possibly buying the property that had once been planned for a residential private academy.
Concept 1 Academy — a for-profit organization — won the bid in an auction Feb. 28 to acquire the property for $19,000 from Huber Heights City Schools. The closing was finalized earlier this month.
“We’re very excited because this opens up the option to all types of day schools to utilize the building,” Darr said. “It’s a beautiful building.”
Prior to last week's Administration Committee meeting, a city document attached to the agenda stated the property was "scheduled to go back to public auction at a date to be determined. The anticipated reserve is $100,000."
City leaders that night were in favor of moving forward and defining a process in which the opportunity could be explored further, including a follow-up conversation with Concept 1 Academy’s real estate agent.
“Our interest only was to reach out to them if (the property) was going back to auction,” Huber Heights City Manager Rob Schommer said this week. “We would entertain a discussion to acquire it for a similar price. (But) their price point is a little bit more than $19,000.”
Darr said the $250,000 listing price was based on comparables. She said the company’s real estate agent has been in contact with interested parties, both in state and out of state.
“This was the option available to us, based on the city’s denial,” Darr said.
Councilman-elect Richard Shaw said he would like to see the facility be converted into a community center. The anticipated reserve price of $100,000 if it had gone to auction would have been “extremely excessive” because of the work that needs to be done to the building, he said.
Shaw’s in favor of having more discussions with Concept 1 Academy and its representation.
“We have a great opportunity to aggressively go after a piece of real estate,” Shaw said. “The sky’s the limit for that area.”
After the auction, the school district moved everything else out of LaMendola, which was built in 1971. Concept 1 Academy initially wanted to turn the building into a facility for 32 male students ages 16 to 18 years old.
The two parties had been under contract, awaiting the city's decision on Concept 1 Academy's request to change the use of the property at 5363 Tilbury Road to a private residential academy.
But in September — just hours before Huber Heights City Council was expected to reject Concept 1 Academy's plan — the company filed a notice of withdrawal with the city. No reason was given by Concept 1 Academy as to why it withdrew its application.
In late July, the city's Planning Commission denied Concept 1 Academy's request after several residents expressed concerns about the proposed facility.
What is only approved for that site is an elementary school, and anything other than that would need to go through a major or minor change process with the city, assistant city manager Scott Falkowski has said. It is zoned planned public and private buildings and grounds.
Sue Gunnell, superintendent of Huber Heights City Schools, has said if a private business occupied LaMendola, it would pay $166,000 a year in property taxes, with $104,000 going to the school district.
The 6.39-acre property, formerly LaMendola Elementary School, closed in 2011. The 35,000-square-foot building housed the district’s nutrition services until the department moved into the new high school during the 2012-13 school year.
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