The District 205 Board of Education Monday night approved a resolution to sell Nielson Elementary School with a minimum bid of $735,000.
This is $91,000 less than the minimum bid for the same resolution from September. Superintendent Dr. John Asplund said there were three interested parties but that the $826,000 minimum bid was too high for them.
“I will tell you, based on the conversations I had with the bidders who were interested and had tours, they were concerned about the number we originally put out,” Asplund told the school board. “There are three bidders who I would consider to be serious that I know of. They are very much aware of the price. They are very much aware of the fact that we’re trying to sell it.”
The process was to put the building up for sale through a sealed bid auction. With a minimum price set, bidders would submit their sealed bids to the district and the highest three bidders would be given the option, on the day the bids were unsealed, to up their bids in a closed auction.
Asplund suggested keeping the process the same but setting a new minimum, something he said was one of three options the board could consider.
“One is you could just do a flat option and go out and see whoever wants to bid on it no minimum or whatever. I don’t recommend that. Another would be to go to a realtor and see if they can negotiate with somebody but they’d still have to go with the minimum you’ve stated before, that doesn’t look very likely. Then you’d be paying a realtor, too. Or a third option, the one I’d recommend, is to set a new minimum and repeat the process. Because all we’re really out is three consecutive advertisements in the newspaper.”
Board Member Rodney Phelps requested that other sources be utilized in promoting the sale of the facility.