Hunter
03/15/21
The Iowa City Community School District Board will hold a public hearing later this month on the sale of a former Iowa City school.
The Roosevelt Elementary property sits on nine acres west of the Iowa River on Greenwood Drive. The Press-Citizen reports that TWG Development has made a $1.25 million offer to buy and rehab the property, turning it into affordable or senior housing units. The offer was considerably more than offers from local concens, including Shelter House, Barker Financial, and the Al-Iman Center of Iowa. The second-highest bid came from a development group out of Platteville, Wisconsin at $525,000
The paper says that TWG specializes in historic rehabilitations and developed the Commonwealth Senior Apartments, Blairs Ferry Senior Apartments, Ashton Flats and the Avenue Apartments in Cedar Rapids. They have developments in 11 states.
Board president Shawn Eyestone told the Press-Citizen via email that there’s no requirement to pick the highest bidder, but the board does have a fiduciary responsibility to consider.
Money from the sale would go into a fund that could be used for infrastructure, buses, musical instruments, and updated technology.
The Board will vote whether to accept TWG’s bid at their March 30th meeting.