By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
The East Troy Community School District Board of Education voted to change the real estate listing for the Chester Byrnes building and property at the June 12 meeting.
District Business Manager Kathy Zwirgzdas told the board the Realtor had contacted her to say “he had not had any interest” in the property since it was listed earlier this year.
Zwirgzdas said the Realtor suggested relisting the property as a redevelopment property with a photo of the land to represent that the property could be built upon.
To do that, however, it would fall upon the School District to demolish the old Chester Brynes school building, which the board members didn’t want.
It at all possible, the board would prefer the cost of the building demo be paid for by the new owners.
Zwirgzdas told the board she asked the Realtor about listing the property as a “make and offer” property instead of redevelopment, hoping to stir up some interest.
Board member Steve Lambrechts asked how much the property was listed for and Zwirgzdas said it was about $1 million. The board members agreed that the price was too high.
After some discussion the board voted to change the listing to “make and offer” for 60 days to see if that made a difference.
The board is under a bit of a time constraint as the money from the building referendum has to be used next year if the district needs to demo Chester Byrnes, which would be the last resort if the property/building couldn’t be sold. If the district doesn’t have to demo the building, the $225,000 set aside for that in the referendum could be used on other items in the facility improvements in the building projects. As the projects draw to a close, there are items on the alternative list that could be paid for out of that money.
Lambrechts told the board that if the property didn’t sell, it was still a possibility to list it on the state’s auction site. However, Zwirgzdas said the district is under contract with the Realtor until Jan. 24, 2018, and the property couldn’t be listed on the auction site until after the contract expired.
