School’s out forever: Development potential at ed. sites

The Boise School District is selling West Junior High School and may do the same with five other school buildings — much to the delight of the commercial real estate community.

The district is accepting bids for the junior high building and 17-acre parcel on Curtis Road through Feb. 28, 2007. It’s also accepting bids for a 2-acre parcel on Columbia Road near Micron Technology, and plans to sell 10 acres on Gowen Road near the district’s bus facility, district spokesman Dan Hollar said.

That’s just the first round. The district also plans to consolidate Cole, Jackson, McKinley and Franklin elementary schools, as well as two alternative schools, Fort Boise and Mountain Cove, according to Hollar. Money from selling up to five of those sites would help the district with construction costs, which have risen since it passed its $94 million bond for the two new elementary schools to replace the four that would be closed.

A task force is meeting until spring to decide what to do with the old elementary schools. The McKinley site would probably be reused for another school, Hollar said, but Cole, Jackson and Franklin could all be sold. A new junior high school and a new alternative secondary school would be built next to the district’s administration building on Victory Road.

Interest has been high for the West Junior High site, said Michael Ballantyne, managing partner of Thornton Oliver Keller, who is marketing the first round of properties. “We’re getting inquiries from the East Coast and California,” he said.

Because of its proximity to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, West has a lot of potential to become medical offices, Ballantyne said. But it could also be used for retail because it’s near a freeway interchange, or for multi-family housing targeted to Saint Alphonsus employees, he said. A mixed-use project could be ideal, he said.

Colliers International Principal George Iliff agreed. “I think it’s a really good site for a mixed-use development, which would obviously include some medical and potentially a hotel and office and residential and light retail,” he said.

Large, centrally-located sites like the 17 acres on Curtis are hard to come by in Boise, he said. That and the location by Saint Alphonsus and the freeway make it a very desirable site, he said.

Medical uses such as doctor’s offices, outpatient clinics or outpatient surgery centers would be the highest and best use for West Junior High, said Nancy Lemas, principal and managing broker of Commercial Northwest. Jennifer Fratusco, an office specialist for Grubb & Ellis, said she could see a multi-story medical complex on the site.

If the task force recommends that the district sell Cole Elementary School, and if ownership of the site is ironed out, a retail strip center would work well for the site, Lemas said. “I think Cole is a natural for retail, given its proximity to other retail,” she said.

The school district owns nine of the 10 acres at Cole and Fairview outright, Hollar said. But one acre was donated by the Cole family and the Coles’ heir, the Children’s Home Society, says that a clause in the agreement provides for that acre to revert to them if the site is no longer used for a school, he said.

The school district believes it has satisfied the terms of the agreement in such a way that the reversionary clause would no longer be in effect, Hollar said. The Children’s Home Society and the Boise School District are going to court to resolve the matter before Cole Elementary is sold. However that turns out, it won’t affect the district’s ability to sell its 9 acres, he said.

“Cole would be great,” Fratusco said. “That’s in the heart of commercial. The traffic counts are huge. I think Cole would be very possible to sell.”

Franklin Elementary School, located at Franklin Road and Orchard Street, would be good for a variety of “lifestyle retail” uses — a mix of clothing, electronics and grocery stores, like a small-scale version of the Meridian Crossroads shopping center at Fairview and Eagle roads, said Tim Thornton of Intermountain Commercial Real Estate.

Franklin could be a mixed-use development with retail and office or multi-family housing, said Ray Frechette, a retail sales and leasing specialist with NAI Kowallis & Mackey.

The 8-acre Franklin Elementary site would be good for infill multi-family housing, preferably affordable housing, Lemas said.

Jackson Elementary could be used to extend the office complex at the corner of Cole and Franklin roads, Lemas said. It has a few access problems, but it has the potential to be paired with a former 24 Hour Fitness site for an even larger office development, she said.

But Jackson also has potential as a site for a charter school or multi-family housing, Lemas said. “A lot of charter schools are looking for space,” she said.

Apartment buildings behind Jackson make it good for a project with a large multi-family residential component, Frechette said.

Fort Boise and Mountain Cove alternative schools could be sold in a third phase, Ballantyne said.

The 18-acre Fort Boise at Fort Street and Broadway Avenue interests Frechette. “It would make an awesome planned unit development with a little retail, a little office, some townhomes or condos,” he said. “Since it’s big enough and it’s not abutting any neighborhoods, you could get some height on it.”

***

To contact the author of this story, send email to: lora.volkert@idahobusiness.net.