School District Reviewing Wilson Building Offers

ST. CLOUD -- With the 30-day waiting period over, offers for the Wilson building are being discussed by the St. Cloud Area School District.

At the board finance committee meeting Thursday morning, they went over five offers ranging from $17,500 for an empty lot, to a $210,000 offer for Wilson and both empty lots.

Amy Skaalerud is the Executive Director of Finance and Business Services. She says only four of the offers are up for consideration.

The posting was very clear that our intention was to sell the Wilson building. They could lump the other lots in as a package deal, but we weren't accepting offers on just the lots at this time. So, technically that fifth offer is kind of an invalid offer.

The sale was approved by the board back in March. The building was listed with no specific price, but the stipulation that the buyer disclose their intended use of the property.

Skaalerud says the committee will be recommending the highest offer to the board at the meeting on Wednesday.

The high offer is for a childcare and early childhood education center which is the same use that was there previously with our tenant. So the recommendation that administration is making from a financial standpoint is obviously to accept the high offer, given that the high offer is for a use that is beneficial to the community and educational in nature.

If approved by the board, the sale of the property will be contingent upon a conditional use permit from the city.

As always, next week’s board meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a time for public comment.