In the most recent twist in the Southern Pines Land and Housing Trust’s nearly two-year pursuit of the old Southern Pines Primary campus, a majority of the school board is prepared to sell the entire property at a price the trust has agreed to pay.
Just over a month ago the school board voted 4-3 to sell a portion of the campus to the trust for $300,000 — and the trust’s leaders appeared resigned to curtailing their plans for a Black community and cultural center to five acres.
By another 4-3 vote on Wednesday night, the board agreed to negotiate terms for a sale of the full 17 acres for $685,000. That’s both the value of the property as most recently appraised earlier this year and the amount the Southern Pines Land and Housing Trust offered for the old campus this summer.
This time, board member Stacey Caldwell voted with Libby Carter, Ed Dennison and Pam Thompson in the most recent vote to move toward selling the entire property to the trust.
The school board and land trust had settled on a $300,000 purchase price for the five acres at the corner of Carlisle Street and West New York Avenue, which is subject to deeds designating it for perpetual educational use.
But a lot happened between the two votes. The district discovered that the utilities supporting the auditorium, gym, and academic buildings on campus are too interconnected to easily subdivide the built portion of the property.
Debate over what the other 12 acres might bring in a competitive bidding process continued on Wednesday. Another two potential buyers indicated that they would have been willing to pay significantly more than $685,000 for the entire campus, but neither was interested in the remainder after the board voted to sell the corner parcel to the trust.
“At this time I just think with the new information that’s come as far as the boilers and the dollar value for having to get that corrected, I think we need to sell the property as-is to the land trust,” said Thompson.
Before the vote, board member Robert Levy moved to use the trust’s standing $685,000 offer as the starting point in an upset bidding process. Levy has been a proponent of keeping the recently retired schools in Aberdeen and Southern Pines to use for school growth in the future: to offset crowding at Pinecrest, provide for a third middle school in southern Moore County, or as potential early childhood education sites.
“At this point it doesn’t look like the board is willing to totally preserve these things, so if you don’t preserve it then we need to get the maximum amount,” he said.
Levy’s That motion failed by the same 4-3 vote in favor of selling to the trust outright. School boards can sell property of historic interest directly to nonprofit groups, without inviting competing bids, as long as such sales net the district a fair price.
Carter pointed out that the school’s progress toward selling the four recently retired schools in Aberdeen and Southern Pines, taken in total, is shaping up to end within $100,000 of the properties’ original 2019 appraised value.
Southern Pines Elementary sold to Moore Montessori Community School for $1.6 million earlier this year. That was $500,000 over its appraised value. The schools are finalizing a sale of the old Aberdeen Primary at $473,000 to the highest of half a dozen bidders.
“I think that it is a very fine sum that we would be bringing in, and it would eliminate the continual and ongoing expenses that we are incurring by simply holding this property,” said Carter.
“We all agree that we are not in the real estate business. We need to get out of the real estate business, and I truly feel that going ahead and negotiating with the land trust for the full purchase of all the property there at Southern Pines Primary at the appraised value would be the best step that we could take in realizing our move out of the real estate business.”
Proceeds from the school sales have already been designated for capital improvements at campuses that are still in service, according to a list of priorities the board approved earlier this year.
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September 23, 2021 at 12:35PM
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School Board Moves Toward 'Selling to the Trust' - Southern Pines Pilot
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