School building handed to college organizers

By Daniel Pepper
Staff Writer

Otsego school officials handed Allegan Street elementary over to its new owners recently. Pictured are (from left) Superintendent Dennis Patzer, Cardinal Newman College founding provost Ron Muller and Thomas Grace, project chairman. (Photo provided)

The contracts are signed and the sale is final: Otsego’s Allegan Street Elementary School is now in the hands of the Cardinal Newman Liberal Arts Project, who are proceeding with their plans to open a Catholic college.

School and college officials met Monday, Sept. 15, and the building and its contents were handed over, Otsego superintendent Dennis Patzer said.

“It’s a really nice, fitting transition that this building will still be an educational institution and serve students, whether they’re K through 12 or post-secondary,” Patzer said.

The group will pay Otsego Public Schools $250,000 for the building over seven years.

Patzer said that though the building was originally appraised at $750,000 and the district’s asking price was $375,000, the school system was lucky to find a buyer in the current economy, much less one with an educational mission.

“We could have sat on that building for years,” Patzer said. “We did have some operating costs and now those are gone. We’ve got all our final utility bills.”

While the for-sale sign might not be down yet, Patzer said, there was a reason for that.

“At closing, they bought the sign, too,” he said. “I guess it’ll become a ‘coming soon’ sort of sign.”

Patzer said he plans to recommend the district save the money from the sale in a capital improvement and repair fund.

The sale of the building was one of Patzer’s main focuses for managing the district’s assets.

“That’s probably one of the biggest goals we had in that area and it’s done as of Monday,” he said.

College planners hope to open the institution as early as 2009. The project needs to raise funds by then, as well as renovate the building and get state accreditation to make that goal. Organizers have said they think they have about 50 students lined up.

The group, which includes faculty who didn’t want to leave Michigan when Ave Maria College was closed and reopened in Florida, is currently teaching students under the auspices of other institutions.

Future plans for the Allegan Street Elementary site include adding dorms, gardens, a chapel and a quadrangle.

The school district decided to sell the building after determining it would be inefficient to renovate under the recent bond issue; it replaced it by converting the old Otsego Middle School into Washington Street Elementary School.

Patzer said the school was helping out however it could.

“I know it’s a new concept for Otsego, but the administration is putting whatever support we can behind them,” he said.