Thursday, June 23, 2005

Middle school site to go up for sale

From Daily Republic, Fairfield // June 23, 2005

By Ian Thompson // Staff Writer

SUISUN CITY - Suisun City will put the old Crystal Middle School site on the market for redevelopment once the Fairfield-Suisun School District signs off on its portion of the agreement.

The Suisun City Council on Tuesday approved the deal, which requires the city to sell the school site within the next 12 months to developers.

If the city doesn't find a buyer within that time, the city will have to pay the school district at least $2.25 million, the appraised value of the site.

The school district's governing board is expected to vote on the agreement July 14.

The only sticking point Tuesday night was what the split would be if Suisun City sells the school site for more than the assessed value.

Suisun City leaders wanted a 50-50 split, while the school district preferred to get 75 percent of any profits, interim Suisun City Redevelopment Director Al da Silva said.

The disagreement was shelved for the time being with an agreement that both sides would meet and work out their differences once they find out how much the site goes for.

Suisun City has wanted to push forward aggressively with the school site's redevelopment since the school was closed and the school district decided to build its district offices elsewhere.

The school district wants to use the money from the sale to pay for building new district offices at Hilborn and Martin roads overlooking Interstate 80 in northern Fairfield.

Now, Suisun City has to decide whether it will put out a formal request for proposals from developers or start feeling out potential developers more informally. The city plans to market the site for residential development.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or
ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.

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