Posted 5:13 p.m. Thur., March 12 - This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 12, 2009 - Announcements of vacant St Louis Public School buildings for sale used to bring gleams of excitement to the eyes of St Louis developers.
I know. I'm one of them. Five years ago, I bought and redeveloped the Theresa School at Park and Theresa avenues into 35 rental lofts. I love that building. It's one of the first William B. Ittner-designed buildings. It is beautiful and architecturally significant.
But I would not pay top dollar today -- even for such a gem. The developers left in the current economic downturn -- and their bankers -- are looking for (and finding) distressed and bargain basement priced properties. And that should not describe the sale of some of the region's finest architecture.
The city schools have not helped their economics by refusing to sell the buildings to the most likely purchasers, the organizers of charter schools. So, the board will be trying to sell these properties at the worst time at the lowest price -- if they can sell them at all.
My advice to the SLPS is simple. Keep the buildings.
There are charter schools looking for places to open their operations in the city -- and although I share the School Board's concerns for selling to a "competitor," why not make it to their advantage? The School Board should rent the schools to the charter schools rather than selling them to developers for a low price.
Renting the buildings makes good civic sense. It will ensure a constant revenue stream to the SLPS over the rental years. Many of these buildings are in good shape and can be rented at a good price. The ones that are not can be rented cheaply, with the proviso that the new charter schools' occupants bring them up to code.
Alternately, they could lease the school and then fix it up -- the same way people do restaurants or office buildings -- and still make money. And if you rent out properties, you have to maintain them, cut the grass, clean the parking lots, etc. All those labor needs preserve the jobs of the current SLPS employees who work in janitorial and maintenance positions.
Retaining ownership of the schools as rental properties also preserves those spaces for the possible future when we have more children in the public schools system. If the SLPS were to sell all its underused properties now, it would find out what pretty much everyone looking for an expansion site already knows: large parcels of vacant ground are scarce and expensive.
Under my terms of my idea, an expanding school system could choose not to renew a charter school lease and take the school back to use for the kids in the city public schools when needed. Meanwhile, neighbors of the currently vacant schools would regain the the sort of vitality that is part of the vitality of a busy building. They also would have the chance to send their children to neighborhood schools, and potentially would have buildings open for the thousand other after-school activities neighborhoods need.
I know this doesn't give the SLPS the bump in cash it seems to want right now. But I think it gives them something better: a good long-term plan and a revenue stream that will last for years.
Amy Gill and her husband, Amrit Gill, have renovated and restored buildings worth more than $200 million in St. Louis since 1991, including the Theresa School at 1517 South Theresa Avenue. The Gills are co-principals of Restoration St. Louis.