Video: Plans Revealed For Lee Middle School Property

[syndicaster id=’6264296′]

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Class has been out at the old Lee High School for years.

The building has sit empty for five years. Now, plans are moving forward on how to convince a developer to buy the property but there are some obstacles.

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, it was a unanimous decision to let the Columbus Redevelopment Authority step in and try to make it useful again.

The Authority wants to turn the property into a tax-generating property.

The development group, along with the city and the Columbus School Board agree to help each other in order to help find a buyer.

“We’re wanting to see about looking at development for the property,” said John Acker, President of the Redevelopment Authority.
During the next nine months the Redevelopment Authority will conduct several studies on the property. One of the first issues to take care of is how to get rid of the asbestos.

“Number one, we have to determine how much asbestos is in the property, is there any other issues in the property that we need to be aware of? Then we also have to figure out what it’s going to take to get those out. Those are things a developer is going to want to know,” said Acker.

The property will be taken off the real estate market for nine months.

Another study will determine how much it will cost to have the building torn down.

Then a plan will be created to market potential buyers, including finding environmental grants to help pay for the purchase.

“That’s kind of always a big question, what are you going to put on it? And the answer is we don’t know. That’s the exciting part of this program, at the end of the day, I go back to what our goals are, improve the city of Columbus and tax revenue. So we want something that’s going to generate taxes for the city of Columbus,” added Acker

Columbus Superintendent Dr. Philip Hickman says he’s excited about the possibilities for the re-vamped property.

“What this allows us to do is concentrate on education and allows the redevelopment board to concentrate on redevelopment. And it will allow us to in the future hopefully to be able to get money on the tax rolls, so that both the city benefits and our school district,” said Dr. Hickman.
The Redevelopment Authority will pay for the studies of the property from their yearly budget of $55,000.

The property will be appraised to the condition of “as if” it were taken to dirt rather than “as in.”