The financially troubled school district here is seeking buyers for more than two dozen school buildings that it shuttered last summer in one of the country’s biggest school closing programs.
And while one prospective developer, Municipal Acquisitions, a firm based in Washington, has offered $100 million for the entire portfolio, both Drexel and Temple Universities are considering the purchase of individual schools near their campuses.
The school district published details on its website of 27 buildings, totaling about 3.7 million square feet, and the land they sit on, in the hope that the properties could be adapted and reused by buyers, who could provide the district with desperately needed cash. The public school system laid off 3,800 workers to close a $304 million budget deficit at the start of the current school year.
The properties range from the former University City High School and its associated buildings covering 611,000 square feet on a prime West Philadelphia site near Drexel University, to the building that housed Germantown High School, a 278,000-square-foot site in a low-income area of Philadelphia’s northern suburbs.
District officials said the portfolio’s overall value was being appraised. For eight properties that are subject to expedited sales because there has been a “demonstrated interest,” the appraised value should be known by Dec. 17; valuation for the remaining sites will come later.
Twenty-four schools, representing about 12 percent of the district’s total, were closed at the end of the 2012-13 academic year because dwindling student populations had left them significantly underused, and they were draining scarce resources.
Municipal Acquisitions said its offer reflected real estate prices in the area.