Spokeswoman Jill Moberley said DPS is trying to sell the properties to eliminate the cost of maintaining them. The district did not report an annual maintenance cost, but with more than half of the properties over five acres, and six of them 11 to 16 acres, Moberley said mowing is a drain on DPS staff.
The properties will be sold in an online auction run by Sperry Van Ness, from 9 a.m. Aug. 11 to 4 p.m. Aug. 13. Information on the properties is available at www.DPSDauction.com.
“My experience of 35 years is that we fully expect to sell if not all, at least the majority of these properties at the published minimum bid amounts or higher,” said Louis Fisher, national director of Sperry Van Ness auction services. “I realize that the market is challenging in some areas there, as it is in other parts of the country. An auction creates excitement and is designed to create competition.”
The six smallest properties, ranging from one to three acres, have minimum bids under $10,000. Minimum bids on the others fall between $10,000 and $80,000, with one exception.
The 3.27-acre Patterson Kennedy school site on Wyoming Street is surrounded by Miami Valley Hospital, the University of Dayton and other Midtown development. The listed minimum bid for that site is $719,928.
Dave Dickerson, Dayton market president for Miller Valentine Group, said that property stands out from the bunch because of its location. The rest will compete with a glut of existing vacant land.
“Most of these are going to be located within neighborhoods, so what are they going to be used for? A housing component, or maybe green space like urban gardens,” Dickerson said. “They’re probably not going to generate high dollars, because your commercial uses are going to be the highest price.”
All but three of the properties have residential zoning. One behind Dayton Public Schools’ current transportation center is zoned light industrial, while the Wyoming Street property and one near the VA Medical Center are zoned “campus institutional.”
Dickerson said if properties on larger roads could be rezoned to their “highest and best use” after the sale, they could become more valuable.
If all 24 properties sold, each for the minimum bid, about 170 acres would change hands at a total sale price of $1.39 million. Moberley said whatever proceeds DPS gets will go toward reducing the debt from last decade’s building program.
Fisher said this is the largest land auction Sperry Van Ness has done for a government agency. If any properties go unsold, the school district could consider offers below the minimum bid or keep the properties.
“Hopefully it’ll be positive for the whole community,” Fisher said. “We’re here to return as much as possible to the school board. … They need to dispose of the properties, and hopefully they can use that money wisely elsewhere.”
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