District 742 Approves Donation of Tech Land to St. Cloud
ST. CLOUD -- District 742 has officially signed off on donating the century-old Technical High School and its land, to the city of St. Cloud.
The school board approved the letter of intent at their meeting Thursday. The city will still need to approve the transfer as well. The transfer, first proposed earlier this month by Mayor Dave Kleis and Superintendent Willie Jett, means the district will give the city both the high school property and media center.
That will happen for the media center when the district moves into their new offices and the high school in the fall of 2019.
In the letter, part of the city's request reads:
"Upon approval of this letter of intent, the City will take responsibility for marketing and redeveloping the two properties. In preparation for the land transfer, the City will initiate a neighborhood and community-based redevelopment study to identify an appropriate redevelopment opportunity that is consistent with the character of the neighborhood."
The Tech properties were recently appraised by Chadwick Appraisals out of Bloomington. Tech's land has a value of $890,392, and demolition/abatement would cost around $3.5-million, which leaves Tech having a net value of negative $2.6-million.
The media services building is valued at $1.3-million.
Both Mayor Kleis and Superintendent Jett say the city is in a much better position to handle the redevelopment of Tech.
The board's decision was unanimous.