In NLR, 4 schools to go for half off

1 site proposed as therapy clinic

A former elementary school among four approved Friday to be sold by the North Little Rock School Board is being proposed for conversion into a day care center and pediatric therapy clinic, board members were told.

The proposal for the former Lynch Drive Elementary School, 5800 Alpha St., is scheduled to go before the North Little Rock Planning Commission on Tuesday for a rezoning request to allow for the therapy clinic and a special-use permit for a day care center.

The School Board voted 7-0 to approve an addendum to the contract at a special meeting Friday to sell the four properties to TerraForma LLC of Maumelle, a commercial property developer. The vacant Lynch Drive, Baring Cross, Rose City and Argenta school buildings are to be sold "as is" at a reduced price of $250,000.

In April, the School Board voted to sell the vacant campuses to TerraForma for $500,000, but the price was reduced by half because of recent vandalism that severely damaged the Lynch Drive school building, the most valuable of the four properties, before the sale was to be finalized. The Lynch Drive property had earlier been appraised at $2.25 million.

Electrical, cable and copper wiring and brass plumbing fixtures were stripped out of the building and almost all urinals in bathrooms destroyed during multiple break-ins since mid-August, Adam Jenkins, the district's real estate agent, told board members. Several classrooms also were "extensively" damaged, he said.

"All we had was a box," Jenkins said of the extent of damage to the building after the vandalism.

School Board members had voted 6-1 in a special meeting Thursday to counter an offer by TerraForma made after the damage was discovered. The developer proposed to add an option to buy the former Amboy Elementary to the package of schools to be purchased, at a price of $325,000, but would leave $75,000 in escrow while the company considered whether to buy the Amboy school.

If the Amboy school wasn't purchased, the district would be left with $250,000 for the four original properties. If the buyer were to proceed with the Amboy purchase under that offer, another $175,000 would be paid to the district, bringing the total sale price for the five schools to $500,000.

The board made a counteroffer to exclude Amboy and sell the four others for $250,000, which Jenkins said was agreeable to TerraForma. The board's meeting Friday was to approve the addendum to the contract for the reduced price.

The district's proposal restricts the properties from being used in competition with the school district, which would include conversion to charter schools. Also, the district requires that it will receive the right of first refusal to buy back a school before TerraForma sells to a third party at whatever price the third party agrees to pay for the property.

The appraised value of the combined properties exceeded $4 million, causing some board members to balk at the TerraForma proposal made Thursday.

Jenkins told board members that the Lynch Drive school is being bought to become a Kidz Connection Pediatric Therapy Services, which now has a location at 5307 John F. Kennedy Blvd. in North Little Rock. The business offers a speech pathologist, occupational therapy and physical therapy.

The Planning Commission application states that the applicant will relocate the current operation to the former Lynch Drive school and open 6 a.m. to midnight. A 6-foot high, wooden privacy fence is to be added around the playground area, according to the application.

The excess buildings are the result of the district's capital-improvement program. The school district has almost completed a systemwide program to reduce 21 district schools to 13, with nearly all of those either newly built or extensively remodeled. The district has 14 schools now, with one more to close by next year under the program.

The North Little Rock School District has 9,000 students.

Metro on 09/05/2015

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