WESTBROOK – A former elementary school in Westbrook is likely to be sold to a developer who plans to convert the property into a 98-unit, market-rate apartment complex.

Pending City Council and rezoning approval, the Prides Corner Elementary School, at 375 Pride St., will be sold for $650,000 to V&E Enterprises Inc. of South Portland.

City administrators have scheduled a neighborhood meeting Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 6 p.m., at the Prides Corner Church, to gauge reactions before it votes on the sale.

“We had a meeting with neighbors when we first put the property on the market, and we crafted our marketing based on what they wanted to see,” said Jerre Bryant, city administrator. “We want to meet with neighbors again before it goes to the council.”

After meeting with the neighbors, the proposed contract between V& E Enterprises and the city will go before the City Council for approval. Building plans for the new apartment complex and the rezoning of the property will also need to be approved by the Planning Board.

V&E Enterprises owner Vincent Maietta put a down payment of $10,000 on the property on Oct. 10, but the sale of the property was not disclosed until Wednesday, Oct. 23, after the city’s legal counsel had a chance to review the sale.

Calls to Maietta were not returned by the American Journal’s deadline Wednesday.

V&E Enterprises Inc. also owns property in South Portland, including a shopping center at Western Avenue and Gorham Road.

City documents indicate the plan is to convert the former school into one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Depending on the cost of the project, the school building may make up the base of the complex, with additional floors added, or the building could be razed and replaced with four or five smaller buildings scattered throughout the 9.5 acre lot.

According to Bill Baker, assistant city administrator for business and community relations, the additional market-value apartments would be beneficial for the city.

“I think housing in Westbrook is a hot prospect these days,” Baker said. “There is definitely a need for mixed-use development, including market-rate apartments, which I think will be a benefit to the city in the long run.”

Bryant said a 2,800-square-foot lot on Bridgton Road, once part of the Prides Corner Elementary School parcel, has been split off from the total property and will be sold separately.

According to Bryant, the city assessed the property and building at $851,200. He said some of the $200,000 difference between the sale price and the assessed value could be made up in the sale of the now separated parcel on Bridgton Road.

The school was built in 1950, and was renovated in 1965 and 1988. The Prides Corner building became city property during the summer of 2012, when the school department closed it as part of the reconfiguration plan that folded students, faculty and staff into the city’s remaining three elementary schools and sent fifth-graders to the new middle school. Superintendent Marc Gousse said the building was in need of $1 million in repairs or more just to keep it open for another school year. More renovations would have been needed after that, he said.

In 2012, it was estimated closing could save $500,000 or more in a year when the school department was dealing with a $3.7 million budget gap from the 2011-2012 budget.

Bryant has said the money from the sale of Prides Corner school was earmarked for improvements at another converted former school building, the Fred C. Wescott Community Center, which is in need of nearly $3 million in repairs for a new heating system, security, lighting and other issues.

Westbrook City Administrator Jerre Bryant, visiting the closed Prides Corner Elementary School on Tuesday, says he and city councilors will meet next Wednesdsay with the school’s neighbors to talk about a developer’s plan to convert it into apartments.