Hillsboro R-3 school officials have agreed to sell about 56 acres of land along Hwy. A for $1.1 million less than the district paid for it in 2004.
The board voted 5-0 June 27 to sell the property for $400,001 to Bridle Creek Properties of Ste. Genevieve, a real estate company. The company offered the highest of three bids for the property.
Brad Bauman, a spokesman for Bridle Creek, said June 28 that residential development is the company’s “most likely use” for the property.
Despite selling the property for a loss, it’s the best deal the district can get under current market conditions and for the foreseeable future, school officials said.
The district bought the property, which is on the north side of Hwy. A at Sandy Valley Road in unincorporated Jefferson County, from Ron and Ellen Ravenscraft of Festus for $1.5 million at a time when there was a building boom and school officials expected enrollment to increase. However, the boom ended and the district’s plan to build a new elementary school at the site never occurred.
While district officials had hoped for higher offers, there were good reasons to accept the Bridle Creek bid, said Jon Isaacson, who took over as superintendent on July 1.
“For that amount of property, the buyers are finite,” Isaacson said.
In addition, the property, which is in unincorporated Jefferson County, has no sewers, and it would cost $350,000 to $400,000 to install a sewage system, he said.
School officials used a bidding process to sell the property, instead of hiring a real estate agent, because the district would have had to pay a real estate agency a 7 percent to 10 percent commission, Isaacson said.
He said the district hired Todd Real Estate Services of Festus to appraise the property before the bidding process, and the appraisal came in at $450,000 to $460,000.
Board members decided in May to sell the property through a bidding process with the provision that they had the right to accept or reject any bid based on the district’s “best interests.”
At the June 27 meeting, the question for the board was, “Do we sell the property now?” Isaacson said, pointing out that there is no way of knowing if and when the land would rise in value.
“It was the best deal we received,” Isaacson said after the meeting. “When you look at the appraisal of the property, it’s a fair offer under current conditions for a property we’re not going to use.”
Isaacson said the district has not yet determined how the money from the land sale will be used, but the proceeds can only be used to fund capital improvements based on the tax/bond language regarding the property.
Board members Rob Kruse and Jane Heine did not attend the meeting.