District 99 Board to Consider Purchase of Prince Street Property

The District 99 School Board will be asked Monday night to approve a resolution to purchase the last of eight lots targeted by the district in 1998 as part of a plan to expand its 22-acre campus.

After more than a year of negotiations, the owners of 4440 Prince Street have agreed to sell the property to the district for $385,000.  

"Even though we believe the actual market price to be no more than $330,000, we recommend accepting this offer considering several aspects," Controller Mark Staehlin wrote in a June 16 memo to the board.

Herbert Bade, who owns the property with his wife, had appeared at several school board meetings to express his unwillingness to sell the property, which was last sold in 1986, according to Zillow.com. Zillow estimated the value of the property at $264,200, with a possible range of $193,000 to $345,000.

Among the reasons cited by Staehlin for recommending the purchase of the property are the district's belief that "the owners sincerely do not want to relocate," as well as the desire to avoid legal and administrative costs associated with any eminent domain proceedings that the district might consider.

In addition, "waiting for the owners to move out at a much later date would limit our ability to execute significant portions of the Master Site Plan in 2012-13," Staehlin wrote.

The district's Master Site Plan calls for a grass field to replace the west parking lot along Sherman Avenue between Prince Street and Saratoga Avenue, and a bus drop-off area and staff parking lot to be installed along Grant Street at Prince Street. Prince Street north of Grant will be absorbed by the campus, according to the plans. 

In all, the North campus will see $9.3 million in Tier 1 improvements by the end of the 2012 construction season. 

The purchase of the Prince Street home would be financed out of the district's Site Acquisition Fund, which was established "explicitly for this type of transaction," according to Staehlin's memo.

Because the fund is a "non-operating-type fund," the purchase will not impact the district's operating fund budget, according to the memo.