Potential buyer still interested in Center School

A party who was interested in purchasing the Center School property, but walked away from signing a sales agreement at the last school board meeting, said Monday that he is still interested.

“It all has to do with the price,” Elijah Kleimenov stated.

The Grand Coulee Dam School District had drawn up a sales agreement for $150,000, the amount that the school has in the property, but the deal fell through at an earlier meeting.

At the time Kleimenov said that he “wasn’t ready to make the deal.”

Monday he said that the school district needed to come down on its price.

Kleimenov, who owns Kleim Construction in Moses Lake, said he is facing two very expensive issues. One, if he tried to bring the building up to code, it would be very expensive. And two, if he needs to demolish the building, “I am looking at maybe $250,000.”

Kleimenov says he has plans that could go either way, but the asking price is too high. He didn’t say how much the price needed to be reduced, because he said he didn’t want to get into a position of negotiating in the newspaper.

“The superintendent (Paul Turner) said he would call me, but I haven’t heard from him,” Kleimenov stated. When asked Friday if he planned to call the potential buyer, Turner said he didn’t know.

“Grand Coulee seems flexible and easy to work with,” Kleimenov said.

The school district recently had the property re-appraised, which is where the $150,000 price tag came into play.

“If the school district would come down on its price, it would be a win all around,” Kleimenov said.