District 196 Considers Buying Leased Building

For five years, District 196 has leased the 28,000-square-foot Area Learning Center in Apple Valley for nearly $381,000 a year.

But that arrangment may soon change. In a closed session work shop on Monday evening, the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board is expected to discuss purchasing the facility—a move that Finance and Operations Director Jeff Solomon says could lead to cost savings for the district.

Because of ongoing negotiations with the owner of the building—AVP Developers LLC.—Solomon and other district officials won't say how much the district may pay for the facility—or how much the district could save yearly if it is purchased. Those numbers will likely be disclosed if the District 196 School Board approves the purchase of the building, which houses several programs and nearly 300 students.

The district has used the building—located near the intersections of County Road 42 and Johnny Cake Ridge Road in Apple Valley—as the home for its Area Learning Center and Transitions Plus and Pathways programs, according to District 196 spokesperson Tony Taschner. The Transition Plus and Pathway programs help older special needs students transition from a school to the community environment.

If the district purchases the building, none of those programs would move from their current home, Solomon said.

AVP Developers constructed the facility during the 2005-06 school year to suit the specifications of the district, which agreed to lease the facility through 2016 once it was completed, Solomon said.

At the time, Solomon said, the district’s lease on another building had expired and district officials were looking for a place to house the ALC and other programs. District schools were seeing burgeoning growth in the number of secondary-level students and needed a temporary solution while they determined whether the ALC, Pathways and Transitions Plus could be moved back into other facilities already owned by the district, Solomon said.

In the end, the district decided there wasn't enough room in its existing facilities to reabsorb the programs, Solomon said.

In additional to costs associated with the lease, the district also pays roughly $112,000 annually in taxes on the facility and is responsible for any maintenance costs for the building.

The board isn't expected to vote whether to purchase the building on Monday—that decision could come later this spring. If the board approves purchase of the facility, Solomon said, it would like enter into a lease-to-own agreement with AVP Developers.

“I imagine the primary reason the board would want to move forward with this is that it would offer savings to our district and tax base," Solomon said.