SOUTH PORTLAND – Although South Portland City Manager Jim Gailey reports showing the old Roosevelt Elementary School at 317 Pine St. to nearly 20 buyers in the past few months, just three bids for the building were submitted by the Oct. 17 deadline.

Those bids were opened at 2 p.m. last Thursday and ranged from a brow-raising $24,000 up to $525,000.

The lowest bid was submitted by Portland-based Hardy Pond Construction, which would create 12 condominium units six in the current building and six in an addition to be built behind the school, which sits on a 1.74-acre lot at the corner of Pine and Mussey streets. The South Portland Housing Authority turned in the highest bid. It also would create an addition to the three-story brick structure, in this case measuring 5,600 square feet, to create 40 living units for residents 55 years of age and older.

In the middle was an offer of $218,500, submitted by Anew Property Development of Portland. Its addition would measure 10,000 square feet, enough to create 19 market rate condo units.

The property is currently assessed at $738,300, according to the city’s online database.

According to City Manager Jim Gailey, the larger housing authority bid is not necessarily a slam dunk. When the City Council considers the sale, possibly as soon as its Nov. 4 meeting, it will have most likely taken note of the fact that the housing authority, being a nonprofit, is not subject to property tax. According to Gailey, the housing authority does routinely make a payment in lieu of taxes, but only on the municipal side of what its assessment might be ordinarily. As private, for-profit firms, both Anew and Hardy Pond would pay a full tax bill, including the portion for public education, said Gailey.

“It seems there are two proposals that will come into play, but to compare one to the other, I really can’t right now, because they are two completely different types of proposals,” said Gailey.

The council also will have to decide if it still wants to create a contract-zoning site for the school lot. Currently, the building sits in the middle of a “residential – A” zone. That limits residential density to four housing units per acre, or a maximum of seven units given the lot size.

In workshop sessions and site walks this past spring, a majority of the council appeared to be in favor of the zoning change, but the question has not yet been put to a formal vote. The decision to sell the building was made at a Nov. 14, 2012, council workshop when Gailey said it’s “too far off the beaten path” to be redeveloped as a new City Hall, or for any other public use.

In workshop sessions, no councilor opposed an addition to the rear of the building. However, as a group, they have discussed creating a facade easement for the three sides of the school that can be seen from Pine Street, which would prevent any developer from fundamentally altering the current appearance of the building.

Roosevelt was built in 1927 as a twin to the cross-town Kaler Elementary School, which has since been demolished and replaced. It served the city as an elementary school until 1983. Gailey himself attended the school as child. Then, from 1985 until 2012, the 13,000-square-foot building was leased to Spurwink Services, which used it as a K-10 school for the developmentally disabled.

The program was down to just 22 students when declining enrollment forced Spurwink to consolidate services in an expanded location at the Cummings School in Portland. Spurwink got the last of its equipment out of the building on Nov. 30, 2012, but remained responsible for the building through July 1. Although its most recent lease ran through 2016, the agency was allowed to terminate early with one year’s notice. It did maintain heat to 50 degrees throughout last winter. Gailey has said he still hopes to sell the building before the snow flies this year.

Spurwink made many improvements to the building over the years, including putting in new windows – which Gailey says are now due for replacement – as well as a new roof, an elevator, a furnace, security systems, central air and heating, landscaping and plumbing that took the old children’s rest rooms out of the basement and put a toilet in the former coat-closets of most classrooms. Spurwink also divided most of the classrooms into smaller spaces, in some cases leaving up the original slate chalkboards, which now run through the wall between rooms.

Gailey said Spurwink removed “a good deal” of asbestos from the school when it first moved in. However, some could remain in the adhesive used to hang the old chalkboards, he said. Beyond that, no structural analysis has been prepared for the building. The bid opening was originally set for Oct. 3 when some potential bidders asked for time to conduct their own environmental assessments. None of the three bidders made remediation of hazardous materials a condition of the sale, and only Hardy Pond made a demand for a zoning change.

According to city finance director Greg L’Heureux, Spurwink’s lease called on it to pay in rent what the tax bill would have been on the building if privately held. Given the current tax rate of $16.10 per $1,000 of valuation, the lease would have amounted to $11,887 this year. However, the agency was allowed to write off the depreciated value of its improvements to the building.

L’Heureux has said that made the lease “effectively zero for many years.”

Gailey said Thursday he had hoped to sell the building months ago, but a routine title search conducted last spring by city attorney Sally Daggett turned up a Spurwink bond for building improvements, for which the agency had used the school as collateral.

“That started the ball rolling on working with their attorneys to get the building off their bond,” said Gailey. “That was June, and we didn’t get it freed up until just before Labor Day.”

“We may now get into the heating season a little, but we’re hoping not to hold this thing for the whole season,” said Gailey.

City staff will review the three bid proposals and make a recommendation to the City Council, said Gailey. The sale could end up on a council agenda as soon as Nov. 4, he said, adding that the meeting could include an executive session should councilors wish to discuss the potential sale behind closed doors.

Any such private meeting could be a violation of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act. State law does allow discussion of real estate deals in executive session but, the law reads, “only if premature disclosures of the information would prejudice the competitive or bargaining position of the [public] body or agency.”

Having already put the building out to a public bid, there is seemingly little left for the council to bargain over, other than to debate in public whether it will or will not accept any of the offers.

South Portland’s old Roosevelt School at 317 Pine St., which was built in 1927 and leased by Spurwink Services from 1985 to 2012, could be sold by the City Council at its Nov. 4 meeting.