Thursday, September 19, 2024
MARINETTE – Under pressure to sell the Garfield Elementary School building in Marinette quickly after being accused of violation a state statute by delaying the sale, the Mariette School Board has approved a counter offer from Green Bay housing developer Anything You Want LLC to purchase the property for below the listing price.
The offer for $265,000 is contingent on the city approving the property’s rezoning to allow for the housing development, according to Maryanne Rich, Superintendent’s Assistant in Marinette. Listing agent Karen Kloida, broker/owner of Broadway Real Estate in Menominee, Michigan, declined to comment, saying only that the offer had a contingency and would need the city’s approval to be converted into housing units. The date of the Zoning Board meeting wasn’t available at press time.
The board approved Anything You Want LLC’s counter offer at a Special Meeting in late August, after The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sent a Notice of Claim and Injury to Terri Florek, school board president and Tom Faller, school board clerk on June 25. (See related story about issues related to Garfield School’s vacant status.)
“There is no further action needed by us until it gets accepted or denied by Zoning,” said Marinette School Board member Martin Shaw, who with Brian Ceranski who voted against the counter offer.
The counter-offer the board approved in a 6-2 vote stipulated the property was sold as-is and removed an inspection contingency. It also included a deed restriction banning use of the property for primary or secondary education to children ages 4 to 18 for the lesser of 20 years or “for as long as Marinette School District occupies property within five miles of the property.”
According to a real-estate listing sheet, the Garfield School property at 1615 Carney Blvd. in Marinette includes a 34,500-square-foot building on a 2.21 acre lot. The school was built in the 1960s and includes an elevator, kitchen, break room, large gym and stage, offices and, of course, classrooms. The listing sheet billed the property as a possible community center or day care, among other uses.
The school district said it closed Garfield Elementary and Sunrise Early Learning Center at the end of the 2021-2022 school year as part of its Rightsizing Project. Sunrise was sold in January 2023, according to a district document. ‘
Shaw, who described himself as three Marinette High School graduates, and said he ran for school board to advocate for the public because he felt the school district should be more transparent. He was elected to the board in April and seated in May, he said. He said the Garfield School property should have been sold months earlier for full price.
St. Thomas Aquinas Academy had its $250,000 offer rejected because the district didn’t want a competing school to own the building, according to St. Thomas Aquinas’ former board president Cheryl Sporie. Then Sporie said she personally made an offer for full price in February that was countered with a deed restriction. She said the district hadn’t announced the deed restriction prior to this, and the advertising for the property said it was OK for a school.
“I would like to see it stay a school. People in the neighborhood who live around it would love to see it stay a school,” Sporie said.
This time around, when Anything You Want LLC countered below the asking price, Shaw said, the board had “very little information about the purchaser” but accepted it anyway.
According to a Facebook page, Anything You Want LLC is located in Green Bay and does home remodeling and other construction projects. The Peshtigo Times was unable to contact the company as it does not have a listed phone number, according to directory assistance.
“Trying to get information has been very difficult on who actually runs the LLC,” Shaw said.
