District holds old school price at $150K

Center School will go on the block again.

This will be the third time that Grand Coulee Dam School District has advertised the old elementary school for sale.

The school board has held firm on $150,000 as the lowest price it will accept for the building and surrounding property, about eight acres, and has authorized another advertising of the property.

At the last “for sale” go-round, one interested person, Elijah Kleimenov of Moses Lake, had tentatively agreed to purchase the property.

At the time he agreed to the price, Kleimenov said he thought he could salvage the building, but learned that he would likely have to raze it.

“That changed the numbers for me,” the Moses Lake business owner stated then, and again this week.

The school district had set the price at $150,000 as the result of a new appraisal.

At a district board meeting early in December, a bill of sale had been worked up and members thought the sales contract would be signed that night.

At that meeting, Kleimenov told the board that he wasn’t prepared to follow through with the purchase at that time.

Kleimenov owns Kleim Construction in Moses Lake. He said Monday that when he learned that it would cost about $250,000 to raze the building, it threw his numbers off.

He stated that his plan for the property would be to put up high-end condos or apartments.

Kleimenov said he was still interested in the property, but “not at that price.”

The Center School property has sat idle since the district constructed its new campus building in Coulee Dam, and has been victimized by vandals on several occasions.

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