McKinley Elementary School Headed to Auction

The shuttered McKinley Elementary School — and the 2.77-acre parcel it sits on — is heading to a public auction.

The district first offered the property to charter schools, a required step in the process.

When no bids came in, the Lakewood Board of Education approved moving the vacant property to the market.

“The next step in the process is that it goes to an auction, open to anyone who’s interested in the property,” said Superintendent Jeff Patterson.

However, the board has the right to reject “any and all bids.” 

“If there’s no successful bidder, we can move to a private sale,” added Patterson.

Rumors are swirling — from business to housing developments — but no one has come forward with a proposal.

The sale will take place before July, but additional details are not yet ready.

Patterson, who proposed the plan earlier this year, told Lakewood Patch that even if the district wanted to reopen the building, it’d cost between $380,000 to 1.2 million — perhaps more than the property is worth.

Closed several years ago, the 56,000-square-foot building costs the district about $40,000 to keep up — including utilities and general maintenance.

Built in 1918, McKinley Elementary School sits on a 2.77-acre parcel in an area desirable to developers. 

The property was assessed at $1.1 million in November. 

“It’s this asset that we don’t need that could really do some good things for the community,” said school board member Emma Petrie Barcelona. “We can use these funds to maintain our other buildings. Lakewood is growing and it’s strong a parcel of that size could really do great things in this community."

When/if the property is sold, the money made from the sale must go into the district’s capital improvement fund. It couldn’t be used for the district’s day-to-day operations.

"We’re optimistic that, as it goes on the market, there will be a buyer and they’ll want to do something with that property," added Petrie Barcelona.”

The value of the land and property at West Clifton Boulevard — with access from Detroit Avenue as well — was assessed at $1.1 million.

Compare that to the other recent assessment of shuttered schools in the district: Taft Elementary at $600,000 and Franklin Elementary at $110,000. 

Patterson has said those schools could, in theory, be used as “swing space” — temporary facilities while the final phases of the Phase 3 construction plans are finished at other buildings.

“Residents have asked what we’re doing with the mothballed buildings,” Patterson said earlier this year. “We’ve been analyzing those buildings.”