Three years ago, in May of 2012, the Pittsburgh Public School District had 23 unused school buildings in their inventory and was spending $15 million on maintenance and debt service. It appears that their remaining inventory of twelve school buildings may be taken in one fell swoop by the City’s Urban Redevelopment Authority with the help of $8 million in state funding through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.
The twelve schools are listed on the District’s “Asset Maximization Plan for Closed Schools” and it notes that the goal is to “…maximize the value of these properties”. While that might mean getting the asking price (four of the buildings listed in the inventory have posted asking prices, a combined $1.075 million) or more but the District’s 2011 policy on sales wanted to look at community and enrollment impact as well. It is not clear if the board or its agent dropped the price of school buildings as they remained available.
Four of the buildings might be torn down under the URA plan. Our 2012 Brief recommended that if the buildings could not be sold for a positive price then they should be torn down–now it appears that might happen in some cases. As we noted in a 2011 blog, from 2000-2009 as enrollment fell the number of school buildings fell from 100 to 71 and about 2 million square feet less space than it had at the beginning of the decade. There will be a smaller district when these available school buildings get moved.
