The Princeton Public Schools will look to buy about 14 acres on Thanet Road for $6.47 million as part of a planned facilities referendum in October.
Though contingent on the referendum passing, the prospective purchase would provide a new home for district employees who today work out of the Valley Road building. Officials intend to put a new school for fifth- and sixth-graders at the Valley Road location, so they need to relocate staff.
The Thanet Road property has two buildings of 55,000 square feet each, but one building would be demolished to make room for athletic fields, Board of Education President Patrick Sullivan said May 30.
The demolition will cost $1 million, with the other building needing some renovations, officials have said.
“It would provide everything the district needs and there would also be some commercial space we would lease out to other parties,” Sullivan said. “It would give us a lot of room to grow.”
The district still needs to reach a deal with Clarendon Real Estate, Boston, Mass., the owner of the property. A Clarendon representative could not be reached for comment.
Sullivan said an earlier offer by the district for the land had been rejected.
“They came back to us recently,” he said.
The decision to acquire the Thanet Road property changes plans the district initially had to renovate the John Witherspoon Middle School to put some Valley Road staff there and then relocate transportation and maintenance staff to the site of a former pet shelter on Herrontown Road. But officials last week dropped plans to buy the Herrontown Road property and can now put everyone at one location.
Overall, buying the Thanet Road parcel and forgoing the other projects officials had envisioned would mean “virtually no change” in the cost of the $129.8 million referendum, Sullivan said.
“It’s about the same,” he said of the amount.
District administrators are looking to have the referendum on the ballot on Oct.2. The referendum would pay for building the new school, renovating Princeton High School, buying the Thanet Road property and making other facilities improvements.
Mayor Liz Lempert said on May 30 she is not opposed to the school district buying the property, given that the district has space needs. Yet she said, “it’s always a concern when properties come off the tax rolls.”
Property tax records show the Thanet Road property is assessed at $10.17 million and that property taxes in 2017 were $233,910.
