Strip mall. Church. New home. Buyers of former MCSD properties share development plans
A retail center or a strip mall. A church with a community center. A single-family home.
That’s what the buyers intend to do with their newly-purchased Muscogee County School District surplus properties.
During its monthly meeting Oct. 19, the Muscogee County School Board approved these sale agreements:
$295,000 for 514 Morris Road
It’s the site of the former Tillinghurst School, built in 1925 and recently demolished to prepare the 4.49 acres for sale.
The location is at the southeast Columbus intersection where Morris and Andrews roads meet at Buena Vista Road, a heavily trafficked business corridor.
The buyer, Sadruddin Hakani of Duluth, plans to seek rezoning of the property for a commercial enterprise, possibly a retail center or a strip mall, broker Kareem Ali of Target Realty Services in Norcross told the Ledger-Enquirer.
After MCSD stopped using Tillinghurst as a regular school, it became a center for adult education and a Head Start program.
The two independent appraisals for the property were $183,000 and $325,000, MCSD operations chief David Goldberg told the L-E.
$112,350 for 151 30th Avenue
This is where the 17,480-square-foot former 30th Avenue Elementary School, built in 1960, still stands on 4.76 acres. It most recently was used for preschool education.
The buyer, Georgia-Cumberland Association of Seventh-Day Adventists Inc., based in Calhoun, plans to use the property as a church with a “multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic and multicontextual” community service center, according to the sale agreement. The free services they plan to offer include:
- Food bank
- Meals served at least once per week
- Healthy cooking classes
- Medical and dental resources
- Disease prevention classes
- Addiction management classes
- Family counseling
- Afterschool care for children
- Youth recreation programs
- Cultural, social and religious programs
The agenda and the attached contract listed the sale price as $75,000 when the board voted, but Goldberg said that’s a clerical error and should be corrected to say $112,350. The two independent appraisals for the property were $104,000 and $150,000, he said.
In 2018, the board approved selling the property for $290,000 to Children of Higher Expectations Academy, a daycare and after-school program provider, but the financing for that deal fell through, Goldberg said.
Asked why the highest appraisal of the property now is nearly half of what the pending sale price was two years ago, Goldberg said the building “has been vandalized so badly, its value went down.”
$22,000 for 13332 Upatoi Lane
Jason and Margaret Anthony are the buyers of the 1.18 acres, full of trees and kudzu with no buildings, in northeast Columbus. They plan to build a house on the property, Margaret told the L-E.
Goldberg laughed as he said he doesn’t know when, why or how MCSD obtained the rural property, one-tenth of a mile from Hopewell Baptist Church.
In fact, Goldberg said, the property is so small, it wasn’t worth paying for appraisals. But he thinks MCSD got a good deal — $2,000 more than the listed price of $20,000.
On the market
Goldberg noted surplus property sales not only add revenue to MCSD’s general fund, but they cut expenses by no longer needing to maintain the land or building. And, depending on their subsequent use, they could generate revenue for MCSD and the city through property taxes and sales taxes.
Check out these MCSD surplus properties on the market:
$4.95 million for 4340 Victory Drive: It’s the previous location of Spencer High School. The property comprises 70 acres and a 150,985-square-foot brick building, originally constructed in 1978.
$495,000 for 2701 11th Avenue: The former Waverly Terrace Elementary School was converted into the Teenage Parenting Center and most recently was Early College Academy of Columbus. The 19,725-square-foot facility is on 2.95 acres.
$495,000 for 435 21st Street: That’s the former Rose Hill Elementary School, more than 100 years old and still standing.
Three years ago, the board approved selling the property for $535,000 to a limited partnership called Rose Hill Redevelopment. But the plan to construct apartments there didn’t come to fruition because the financing fell through, Goldberg said.
MCSD most recently used the building as an alternative school for students with severe disciplinary violations.
$239,000 for 4322 Rosemont Drive: The Rosemont Elementary School on the 6.5-acre site was demolished.
$195,000 for 4312 Harrison Avenue: The 2.65 acres contained Harrison Avenue Elementary School then the Woodall Center for special education before it was demolished.
$8,000 for 2413 Pou Street: This is another mystery property. Goldberg said he doesn’t know when, why or how MCSD obtained the “piece of dirt” — less than a quarter-acre — between Hannan Magnet Academy and Buck Ice & Coal.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 6:50 AM.
