Iola got a sweetheart deal on Valentine’s Day, as school board members learned a Kansas City company wants to convert all three of its elementary schools into housing, an investment worth about $20 million.
At a meeting Monday, school board members voted to pursue an agreement with BNIM, an architecture and design firm based in Kansas City, Mo.
Under the deal, BNIM would partner with two other entities to secure financing including tax credits for low-income housing and historic preservation. They would remodel all three elementary schools in three phases:
• Jefferson and McKinley Elementary schools would be renovated to create 39 apartments in the first phase;
• Lincoln would be converted into 22 apartments in the second phase;
• In the third phase, they would build single-family homes, duplexes and possibly quad-plexes on land surrounding the schools, such as areas currently used for parking lots or playgrounds.
The school buildings will be vacated when a new elementary school opens in the fall.
“We’ve lamented so long about the small number of options for housing in the community and the area,” Superintendent Stacey Fager said. “This could really fill a need.”
Board president Dan Willis agreed, and said a project like this was the dream of board members and the steering committee that helped pass a $35 million school bond issue in 2019.
“This is what the community wanted to hear, that we had a plan for these buildings to not be torn down and be put to good use. Here tonight, we delivered a plan that exceeded expectations,” he said.
The deal is not final, and depends on the companies obtaining historic preservation designation for the schools and securing financing through tax credits.
The board voted to pursue a “memorandum of understanding” that would allow them to transfer ownership once various conditions are met.
That process could take about a year for Jefferson and McKinley, and up to another year for Lincoln. The district will be responsible for maintenance on the buildings until those transfers are completed.
The projected timeline calls for the projects to be completed in 2024, if all goes according to plan.
The apartments would mostly be one-bedroom, with some two- and three-bedroom options up to 1,350 square feet.
