Schools for sale: prime sites to be listed

Those interested in buying some of the Charleston County School District's real estate will have a chance later this year.

The school board has agreed to put some of its most valuable unused property on the market despite the weak economy. The decision doesn't obligate the board to sell its buildings or land, but it does enable officials to see what kind of price its property could fetch. Any profit from a sale would go toward building up the district's rainy day fund.

Board member Chris Fraser, who's president of a local commercial real estate company, said offering the property for sale and accepting a contract are two different actions.

"I don't think any of these sales would be quick or the numbers we would expect," he said.

The district will require minimum bids to prevent lowball offers, and the board would have to give its OK for a sale to occur.

The Laing Middle School campus on Highway 17 will be the first to go on the market.

"It's worth the most," said Bill Lewis, executive director of the district's building program. "We've already had numerous informal offers or expression of interest. … Even though the market is not great, there aren't many pieces of property like this left in East Cooper."

Laing Middle will be housed this fall in the former Wando High campus on Mathis Ferry Road while its new building is under construction. The district plans to update its appraisal of the Laing Middle campus and formally advertise it by mid-September.

Two other high-profile pieces of property — the District 2 (Mount Pleasant) office on Coleman Boulevard and the Charlestowne Academy campus on Rivers Avenue — will be up for sale next.

The District 2 office is a small, roughly 1,000-square-foot building adjacent to the new Moultrie Middle campus. Lewis said its location on an important, commercial road makes it valuable. That property will not be advertised until the middle of the school year when the associate superintendent and staff who use that office have relocated. The downtown district office has reduced its staff and can accommodate those housed in the District 2 site, Lewis said.

"It's the new reality of tightening the belt," he said.

The Charlestowne Academy campus is on valuable commercial property in the midst of an industrial area. The building is old, and the site is too small to build a new school, Lewis said. It should go on the market about the same time as the District 2 office.

Charlestowne Academy is the only recently closed school that will be put up for sale soon. McClellanville Middle and Schroder Middle will be available for leasing, and any proceeds would go to the district's general operating fund that pays for classroom expenses. Fraser Elementary will be used as a swing campus for other schools that need a place to relocate during construction, and Brentwood Middle eventually will become a middle school version of Garrett Academy.

The lowest priority of the for-sale properties is an abandoned building the district owns in the Red Top community in West Ashley. That likely won't happen for another year.

Officials wanted the board's permission to move forward with selling the District 4 (North Charleston) office that's near North Charleston High School, but the board voted 4-4 on that, which means the action will be put on hold. Board members Chris Collins, Elizabeth Kandrac, Arthur Ravenel Jr. and Ray Toler voted against selling the site.

Other sale plans

The following are the board-approved plans for what the district will do with other pieces of land or district buildings once they are no longer being used:

--Academic Magnet High: swing space for schools under construction and eventually sold to Clemson University

--Archer building (downtown): temporary space for schools under construction

--Baxter Patrick campus (James Island): demolished and land saved for potential future use

--E.B. Ellington Elementary: lease to Ravenel

--Marlowe Drive (adjacent to city property): use in a land swap arrangement with Charleston

--Porcher campus (Awendaw): demolished and land saved for potential future use

--Riverland Terrace (adjacent to a city park): use in a land swap arrangement with Charleston

--School of the Arts: potential campus for Montessori Community School

--Whitesides Elementary: temporary space for schools under construction and eventually sold to Mount Pleasant

--Woodland Hall (property near former Wando High): lease

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.