4 vacant NLR schools to go to one buyer for $500,000

The North Little Rock School Board on Tuesday dealt with the issue of unused school buildings, voting to sell four campuses to a single buyer for $500,000 and making arrangements to demolish other abandoned schools if buyers can't be found.

The board voted 6-1 to sell Argenta, Rose City, Lynch Drive and Baring Cross school buildings to TerraForma LLC.

The 9,000-student district is in the middle of a capital improvement program that is reducing what were 21 schools to 13, nearly all of which are being built new or extensively remodeled.

As a result of the building program, the district has several schools that are no longer being used as traditional school buildings. Maintaining the unused schools is not only an expense to the district, but keeping the buildings could hinder the district's ability to qualify for state funding for new schools and additions in the future. School district leaders have said that the state Department of Education's Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division could determine that the district doesn't need funding for new buildings if old schools are still available.

Adam Jenkins, senior associate and director of Newmark Grubb, Arkansas, the district's real estate agent, told the School Board on Tuesday that four offers were made for one or more of the district's vacant schools.

TerraForma, a company based in Maumelle, was the only organization that offered to buy four campuses but was "adamant" that the sale had to be for all or none of the four properties, Jenkins said.

Haybar Real Estate of Little Rock made an offer on Argenta and Baring Cross, and Urban Harvest Fellowship Church in North Little Rock and Dorien's Community Development Center and Preschool of North Little Rock both made offers for Baring Cross, Jenkins said.

Dorien's Community Development Center and Preschool is currently leasing the Baring Cross building from the district.

Ed Loney, a pastor affiliated with the center, appealed to the School Board to accept his organization's offer for $90,000.

"The building is being used to make an impact on the community," Loney said about the preschool at 901 Parker St., that serves some single-parent families and offers youth mentorship programs.

Jenkins told the board that each of the buyer organizations had agreed to the school district's terms for restricted use and right of first refusal should the buyer decide to sell the property to someone else within an agreed-upon time frame.

Superintendent Kelly Rodgers said after the meeting that as a condition of the sale contract, the buyer of the school property has to agree that the property cannot be used, leased or developed for a user who is in competition with the North Little Rock School District. Organizations specifically restricted from using the district's former properties include but are not limited to elementary and secondary schools, Rodgers said.

If the buyer intends to sell within three years of the purchase, the North Little Rock district will have the right of first refusal. The district will have 10 days to decide whether to repurchase the property, Rodgers said.

Asked about the need for the restrictive clauses, Rodgers only would say "competition."

Earlier, the district sold the vacated Belwood Elementary at 3902 Virginia Ave. without any restrictive clauses in writing. That buyer later leased the property to Capitol City Lighthouse Charter School, an independently operated public school that will open in North Little Rock in August.

The acquisition of former traditional schools by charter school organizations is an issue elsewhere in the state and has been addressed in state law.

Arkansas Code Annotated 6-23-501 says that an open enrollment charter school shall have a right of first refusal to purchase or lease for fair market value a closed public school facility or unused portions of a public school facilities in a public school district from which it draws students if the public district decides to sell or lease a school.

The statute also says that a public school district is exempt from the statute if the school district through an open bid process receives and accepts an offer to lease or purchase the property from a purchaser other than an open-enrollment charter school for an amount that exceeds the fair market value.

And there is Senate Bill 847 that is pending in the Arkansas House of Representatives' Education Committee. That bill, if it becomes law, would authorize the director of the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division to determine that an underutilized or unused academic facility may be better used by an open enrollment public charter school. The division could require a school district to issue a long-term lease for the use of its school to a charter school, according to the bill.

The North Little Rock School Board on Tuesday also approved the demolition of Poplar Street High School, the Poplar Street Annex, Amboy Elementary, and North Heights Elementary at a cost of $100,000 each by Baldwin & Shell Construction Co. Nabholz Construction Corp. was approved to demolish Redwood Prekindergarten Center, Glenview Elementary, Park Hill Elementary and Pine St. Elementary for about $355,000.

School Board President Scott Miller said those demolitions won't take place if the district is able to sell the properties.

Metro on 04/01/2015

Upcoming Events