by Kurt Nesbitt
Contributing Writer
A Plymouth-based management company has agreed to become the new owner of the old Elk River Area Public Schools district office building off U.S. Highway 10
School board members approved a $901,000 bid from BRE Group, LLC, on Tuesday night with little discussion by the board members.
School board documents gave no indication of what the future holds for the 40 year-old office building. Representatives of both bidders were contacted by the Star News but had not replied as of this writing.
The Elk River Area School Board has approved a purchase agreement to sell the former school administrative offices for more than $900,000.
The district received lots of interest on the building and two offers for it. BRE Group made the lower of the two offers. The other bidder, ResCare of Minnesota, Inc., offered the district $925,000.
The district reviewed both offers and, according to an analysis presented to the school board Monday night, found that while ResCare’s bid was actually higher, that bid required more commissions and more due diligence, such as building inspection, which would have meant the district would have to pay the building’s operating costs for a longer period of time. The difference between the two bids, after commissions and other costs, was $372, the analysis found.
The district put the property up for sale after it decided to move its central offices into the building off U.S. Highway 169 that was recently vacated by Minnesota School of Business. The U.S. Highway 10 property was recently the subject of a debate among Elk River city council members, who considered buying the building for city purposes and also debated a temporary halt to all city permits affecting downtown redevelopment. Mayor John Dietz sought the moratorium on downtown development after hearing rumors from city staff that an “out-patient facility” could go into the building, which is located blocks from Elk River’s central downtown business district. The council ultimately chose not to impose the moratorium, since some city council members felt doing so would “handcuff the school district.”
School board members did not have many questions Monday night, except for board member Joel Nelson. He asked about whether the district did its due diligence regarding the proposed contracts. Both Board Chair Shane Steinbrecher and Greg Hein, the district’s executive director for business services, said the contracts were reviewed by the school district’s legal counsel.