District OKs offer on sale of Independent school
The Whitefish Independent High School building has been sold to an undisclosed buyer.
The Whitefish School District board voted last week to accept an offer of $300,000 on the building at Park Avenue and Seventh Street.
The board had originally approved a buy-sell agreement in the amount of $450,000, but the buyer returned to the school district with a new offer.
“They looked at the building again and came back with a new offer,” boardchair Pat Jarvi said. “We decided we had to accept the offer or start over.”
The district only had one other offer on the building, which has been on the market since December 2012. The deal is expected to be finalized by mid-April.
The independent program will move into the new high school building when it opens this summer. The school district plans to keep students in the current building through the end of this school year.
The school board last week decided it would rather sell the building at a lesser price than leave it on the market hoping to find another buyer. The board briefly considered splitting the property into two pieces — the lot with the building and the empty lot — and keeping it on the market.
Trustee Shawn Watts said that splitting the properties would probably result in the empty lot selling, while the school district would still be stuck trying to sell the building.
“We’d sell the lot first and that would be less money,” he said. “Then we’d have to maintain the building until it sold.”
The district spends about $36,000 annually to maintain the building.
The school property is currently zoned as high density multi-family residential. The buyer is looking at the site for apartments or affordable housing, according to the district’s real estate agent Mike Anderson with National Parks Realty.
The sale of the independent school building has been identified as a way to help the district make up the $260,000 anticipated overage in the construction budget for the new high school building.
Last week Jarvi said she wasn’t sure how much money the district will get after closing costs, but the sale of the school should be a “big help” with the budget overage.
A potential buyer was forced to withdraw their offer on the building last fall after failing to obtain city approval for their plans for the site. Hurraw! lip balm wanted to operate its light manufacturing business there, but city council denied a request for a conditional use permit for the business to operate as a home-based business in the location.