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School Board approves option proposal on North Grand building

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Developer Charley Thomson now has the option to purchase the North Grand building for $1 from the Charles City Community School District.

The district Board of Education approved Thomson’s proposal 4-1 during Monday night’s meeting, after a public hearing drew comments from seven individuals, and more than 30 in attendance during the agenda item. After Monday’s approval from board members, Thomson has six months to act upon the option to purchase the property from the district.

Thomson is proposing purchasing the entire North Grand building, then leasing the eastern addition, built in 1970, back to the Charles City Community School District for an initial three years. The building’s original auditorium will also be included in that lease, which would be $1 a year; Thomson proposes renovating the original western portion of the building into residential apartments.

“I’m pleased. We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Thomson told the Press following the meeting. “The next step is to obtain financing for the redevelopment of the property.”

Public commenters criticized the agreement being considered by the board, including a security deposit clause that states the district would pay $280,000 in three annual installments to Thomson’s North Grand Benevolent, Literary, Eleemosynary, Educational, Scientific and Charitable Institution, Inc. (North Grand Charitable) non-profit. The clause states that the security deposit will not be returned if, within 60 days of the lease’s expiration, North Grand Charitable begins demolition of the 1970 addition to the North Grand building.

“I don’t see the point in that, why don’t you just retain ownership until you do make up your mind if it’s going to be demolished or not?” former Board of Education member Vince Rottinghaus said in public comments. “That’s going to affect your operating budget.”

Board Vice President Jason Walker said lease payments would come from the PPEL sales tax fund. Paying the lease from PPEL sales tax would take building expenses out of the district’s general operating fund, he said.

“From a business standpoint, the question was asked earlier what it costs to maintain that building as far as heat and everything, and you couldn’t answer it,” commenter Ron Stewart said to the board. “That building’s been operating since the 30’s … You should know that when you say you’re confident going ahead with what Mr. Thomson says — how can you say that when you can’t answer the simple question of the cost to maintain it unoccupied?”

“I know we spent a lot of time trying to find alternate purposes for the building, but I still think there’s some merit to waiting a little longer. I don’t think if the proposal’s that good, Mr. Thomson’s going to withdraw in the next year, so let’s explore a little longer,” Stewart added.

Commenters also offered alternate uses of the building, such as a technical school, a joint municipality/school district administrative building, and an idea that Immaculate Conception Elementary School could purchase and move operations into the North Grand building.

No representative from Immaculate Conception administration or the school board had contacted the Charles City district with that idea, Superintendent Dan Cox said.

“Remember, this all started with the question mark of how long the boiler at the middle school would last,” Thomson told the Press. “It has survived so far, but there’s no guarantee … The advantage of redeveloping as private residences is there is a cash flow from which to pay the cost of redevelopment.”

“If our goal is to save the architecture of the building, the logical step is finding a way to redevelop it as private residences. This does not foreclose any other option for a while,” he added.

Before the public hearing and action on Thomson’s offer, board members moved to table a discussion on a previous pitch offered by Zach Mannheimer of McClure Engineering Company. During a workshop session on May 30, Mannheimer presented his company’s past projects repurposing historic buildings in the midwest with joint commercial and non-profit entities.

Although tabling the item leaves it open to be added to a board agenda in the future, Vice President Jason Walker said Mannheimer’s pitch should be considered by city officials, the Chamber of Commerce or local developers.

“The product of that money spent is a business plan, an outline of what viable options could go into that building. It does nothing beyond that. Someone would need to implement that,” Walker said. “In my opinion the school district does not share a role in that. It shouldn’t be our responsibility of lining up tenants, lease agreements, and so forth.”

During discussion, Cox said he disagreed with the majority of the board.

“There are very few times that the board and I disagree, and I actually disagree with the board on this one. I think the city and the school board need an opportunity to sit face-to-face and discuss this,” Cox said. “Given the importance of the building and given the track record Zach does has, I don’t know that we’re hurt by one additional month of exploring a little bit more what this option could be.”

Receiving brief applause from some audience members, Cox added: “I’m not seeking applause, I feel it’s my duty to make sure that we have thoroughly explored every opportunity, and this one seems to have some merit.”

Tabling a discussion item also leaves the possibility that an item isn’t added to a future meeting unless a board member requests it, President Scott Dight said during the meeting. Board member Jim Frisbie said he intended to set a date for discussion of Mannheimer’s pitch. Frisbie was the only board member to vote against accepting Thomson’s proposal, but declined to comment on the proposal during discussion.

Speaking with the Press afterward, Cox said while he disagreed the decision is ultimately the Board of Education’s to make. As superintendent, Cox does not vote on board decisions.

“I recognize it’s been nearly two years that we’ve been working on this lengthy proposal,” Cox said. “It was 120 pages originally, now it’s down to 62 [pages]. It has taken a long time to get it into it’s final shape.”

“It’s the board’s decision, it’s not the superintendent’s decision. They’re the ones elected by the public, and they did what they thought is right.”

Speaking with the Press afterwards, Thomson said he’d be interested in working with Mannheimer in the future.

“I’d like to find a way to work with him for the redevelopment of the building, and for his ideas on Charles City generally,” Thomson said.

Thomson’s proposal, which he offered in October 2015, is the only offer to come forward on the North Grand building, board member Robin Macomber said.

“You can’t ask us to wait longer on things that we have no guarantees, nothing, there’s no interest,” Macomber said before voting to approve the option agreement. “We can only wait for so long.”

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