A new bidder for the property that once housed Central School has emerged after Duluth-based Oliver Companies failed to win tax credits this year from the state.
The Superior School Board will decide after a closed meeting Monday whether to accept an offer from the unidentified bidder. The 3 acres at 1015 Belknap St. are selling for $650,000.
Oliver Companies planned to reapply for $7.2 million in tax credits to help fund its intended mix of student, affordable and market-rate housing, and a child care center, Internet cafe, workout facility and courtyard. The project largely was aimed at college students, said Seth Oliver, company president.
The prior sale was approved in May of 2005, and a deal was in place with Superior School District that allowed the company time to await news of tax credit funding. Oliver Companies paid the district $25,000 to hold the property, a sum it forfeited when its application was denied, superintendent Jay Mitchell said. The district no longer has an obligation to the company.
Oliver Companies partnered with the Superior Housing Authority and worked with the city on the project, with some property studies funded by Community Development Block Grants.
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The city planned to help Oliver create a tax increment financing district, said Jason Serck, planning director. TIFs redirect property taxes in a designated area to help finance private development.
The city was "trying to create incentives so they don't have a blank field out there for the next 10 years," Serck said of the large, empty site. "It's getting the property on the tax rolls again."
The investment Oliver was considering -- about $15 million -- was considerable, and the project would have improved the community, Serck said.
But he's confident the district will include the city in discussions about the next potential buyer.
"If the deal falls through, we'll probably be talking to Seth in the fall," Serck said.
Oliver said he would consider building elsewhere, but the merit of the site was its close proximity to the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College and the busy Belknap Street corridor.
A site study showed that when the school was demolished, the district used dredge that contained sand, clay and peat -- peat being an organic material -- for fill. That's the cheapest way, Oliver said.
"You cannot build on it," he said. "Over time, that organic material decomposes" and would cause a new structure "to start tipping into the ground."
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It would cost $600,000 to remove the current fill, but because a geotechnical report said the soil was not up to par, it's necessary, he said.
It cost the district about $600,000 to demolish the building and restore the site in 2004.
Jana Hollingsworth covers education. E-mail jhollings
worth@superiortelegram.com or call (715) 394-4421, ext. 137.
