Schools

Osseo School Board Approves Purchase of Maple Grove Land for $1.96 Million

The District 279 School Board moves forward with the process to buy land in Maple Grove for a future district-owned bus facility.

The might soon become the owner of a 20-acre piece of property in Maple Grove.

The District 279 School Board approved a resolution to purchase a piece of land on the corner of 85th Avenue North and Revere Lane North in Maple Grove for $1,960,200 at its meeting Oct. 18.

“The purpose of this purchase agreement is to acquire land for future development of a district-owed bus facility that will allow us to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our contracted transportation services,” Assistant Superintendent Kim Riesgraf told the school board.

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Although there was no timeline outlined for the development of the bus facility, the anticipated purchase is a result of the district’s review of property and facility needs “on an ongoing basis to assure planning takes place to meet our current and future needs,” she said.

The approval by the school board moves the process forward to buy the vacant 20-acre piece of land from current owner Bremer Bank. Bremer Bank purchased the property in 2005, according to Hennepin County property tax records, for $5,547,810. The estimated market value listed by the county is $3 million.

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If a purchase agreement is reached between Bremer Bank and District 279, the closing will take place the end of January 2012.  The district will be closing on another property about June 2012, in which the “Bather Property” for $3.4 million to Estate Development Corporation. Riesgraf told the board the “existing cash flow in the district can accommodate both closings” during the four-month gap.

Once the land is developed, contract vendors providing transportation services for the district would have provisions to follow for operating fro the district owed facility, “resulting in increased efficiencies and reduced mileage and driver-time costs due to the facility's central location,” according to Riesgraf in an email to Patch after the meeting.


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