District reaches deal to sell building

Kalispell Public Schools trustees on Tuesday voted to move forward with the sale of the district’s Auxiliary Services Building at 514 E. Washington St.

Trustees accepted an offer of $260,000 from developer Sam Baldridge of Whitefish in a 5-3 vote at Tuesday’s board meeting. That’s $90,000 below the district’s asking price. Closing is expected to occur in October.

The Auxiliary Services Building, which formerly was Laser School and before that was Edgerton School, currently houses a district warehouse, print shop, mailroom and shipping department.

Baldridge’s was the only offer on the building, which has been on the market for a year and a half.

The decision to accept the offer ultimately rested on the building’s limited commercial use in its current layout and parking availability. There would have to be significant modifications to use it as a business, Superintendent Darlene Schottle said.

The building also needs extensive work such as a boiler replacement and asbestos abatement.

Baldridge said in a phone interview Wednesday that he potentially will remodel the building into business offices, but would not elaborate on specifics.

A year ago, Baldridge and partner Don DuBeau of River Opportunity Project Enterprise purchased property on the corner of U.S. 93 South and East 13th Street in Whitefish — the former location of North Valley Hospital — and are studying the possibility of redeveloping it into a four-year college campus, according to the Whitefish Pilot.

Baldridge said purchase of the Kalispell property has no connection to development endeavors of River Opportunity Project Enterprise.

Trustee Tom Clark vote against approving the offer.

“I think personally we’d be selling low end of the market and purchasing at the high end. You look at businesses around there, going into there, that is going to turn into a prime piece of commercial real estate over the next two to three years,” Clark said.

Trustee Dave Schultz voted to approve the sale and said it was appropriate for the district’s current needs.

“I really don’t think the school district needs to be in the real-estate speculation business,” Schultz said.

Trustees who voted to accept the offer such as Jack Fallon and chairman Frank Miller agreed with Clark’s statement but said they changed their minds because of costs associated with building repairs.

“What’s changed my mind a little bit on this thing is we have inherent costs at the old Laser building that we are going to have to eat if we keep it,” Miller said. “My concern right now when I look at this is we are going to throw our money back into the building and have more of what we don’t want or need.”

Trustees also discussed where to move auxiliary services after the sale is finalized. One option would be to move the warehouse, mailroom and shipping department to district-owned property on 33 Meridian Court and lease space for the print shop.

Other options include leasing or purchasing property to fit all the auxiliary services.

Some administration and trustees looked at prospective properties Tuesday. Schottle noted a property for sale located on Seventh Avenue East North that would be large enough for district needs with additional space to house Information Technology staffers who currently are scattered in offices around the district.

Purchasing property would require approval of voters living in the Kalispell high school district.

With proceeds of the Washington property sale combined with about $150,000 in end-of-year money, the district would have more than $400,000 toward purchasing property with no increase in taxes.

“We were thinking we could go out in January for a purchase if we had a [suitable] building,” Schottle said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.