School District 70 (SD70) has a potential purchaser for the former Alberni District Secondary School site, but plans are not expected to be finalized until mid October.
The Burde Street site has been vacant since the high school moved locations to Roger Street in 2010.
“We have a contract for purchase that we started the finalization process on Jan. 12,” Lindsay Cheetham, SD70 secretary treasurer said at a Jan. 24 school board meeting. “There are several dates that we have ahead of us now.”
Cheetham said the purchaser, who he could not name, has 240 days from Jan. 12 to go through all their conditions before making a final decision.
“That moves us to Sept. 13 and if everything’s going well we have a completion date of Oct. 15,” Cheetham said.
An initial deposit has been put in a trust for the school district, but Cheetham said the amount of the property could not be disclosed.
“As part of the agreement for the new high school we had to put up some money for the construction and the demolition of the old high school,” Cheetham said. “The proceeds that come from this sale will first go to retire any of that debt and if things go through as we anticipate then we will have a little bit of money and it will all stay in the district.”
Another SD70 property should soon be disposed of. The former Girl’s Project property at 2579 10th Ave. will be put forward to the Ministry of Education by SD70 requesting its sale.
“We’ve gone through the public consultation process, we had a meeting here, we had opportunity for people to comment suggestions on our website and we didn’t get any responses,” Cheetham said. “I’m going to send off a letter to the minister in the next day or two asking for permission to sell.”
Cheetham said once approval is granted from the ministry, SD70 will either go to a request for proposal for the property or put it up for sale.