[nfbwatlk] Here It Is ... no Surprise

[Prows, Bennett (HHS/OCR)]

Here's an article of no surprise to the blind community. The vultures
have swooped down! 

 

/s/

 

Bennett Prows


 


 


From:  "The Lund Report"


 


School for Blind Is Up for Sale


Salem Hospital is interested in buying the property, which is listed for
$7.5 million 

By: 

Diane Lund-Muzikant 

 

June 24, 2010 -- A prime piece of property - the Oregon School for the
Blind - is officially on the market for $7.5 million. That equates to
$20.57 per square foot for the land value alone.

 

That property abuts Salem Hospital, which is very interested in
purchasing the site in collaboration with Western Oregon University to
build a nursing school. The hospital has even hired a consultant, paying
upwards of $50,000 to assist in that process.

 

Willamette University has also expressed an interest, according to a
spokesman who earlier told The Lund Report that the school "may
potentially be interested," but declined further comment.

 

There's also a private development company based in Portland that may
make an offer.

 

The $7.5 million listing by Norris & Stevens and Venerable Properties of
Portland, is about $2 million higher than earlier estimates by state
officials. Scott Young, deputy administrator of facilities for the
Department of Administrative Services, thought the property should
command at least $5.47 million, according to an independent appraisal.

 

The income generated from the sale will be equally split between blind
students enrolled in Oregon's public schools and the Oregon School for
the Deaf based on legislation passed during the February special session
(House Bill 3687).

 

Before being placed up for sale, DAS had recommended that the property
be brown fielded with the 11 buildings on the site demolished, and the
land cleared, which would have generated a higher purchase price - about
$7.7 million, but the state would have had to spend $2.1 million to
ready the land.

 

During the February session, Sen. Jackie Winters (R-Salem) had urged
lawmakers to sell the property outright. "This is prime property,"
Winters, who sits on the Joint Ways and Means Committee, had told her
colleagues. "It's not industrial property. There'll be a huge bidding
war. Buyers are just lining up now. Let the bidding begin. Let's not
spend any additional money to get the property ready. Those costs should
be borne by the purchaser."

 

The Oregon School for the Blind had been operating at this site since
1884 until it closed last July. House Education Chairwoman Sara Gelser
(D-Corvallis), an advocate for disabled students, led to the effort to
close the school.

Learn More

 

For a copy of the sale listing click here.
<http://www.thelundreport.org/sites/default/files/u6/School-of-the-Blind
-1page-EMAIL.PDF> 

 

 

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