Attention real estate investors, speculators and bargain hunters — have we got some deals for you!
It's no secret that over the past three decades, the Kansas City, Missouri, School District has closed at least 30 of its buildings. Some were sold and some were torn down, but others were simply deserted. We can't tell you exactly how many buildings fall into that last category because district administrators have done such a poor job of accounting for these properties. We asked for a complete list of abandoned schools, and officials sent back just 11. There may be more.
As the Independence School District has discovered this summer, it isn't easy getting ahold of Kansas City School District buildings — even when voters command the district to hand them over. The school board and its real estate arm spent most of the summer fighting the transfer in court.
The district's headquarters is supposedly for sale, but the board doesn't seem eager to unload the hot property. Back in May, the district solicited offers for the building at 1211 McGee, a prime piece of real estate next to the new Sprint Center. It's reportedly received several offers, including one from City Hall, but the school board has not yet acted.
And then there are the abandoned schools. Months ago, the district hired Block & Co. realtors to market and sell some of the schools. But the school board has done nothing to determine which schools should be sold or how much they're worth.
It might not be easy trying to make a deal with the district, but opportunities abound for investors willing to put up with the aggravation.
Even after being abandoned for as long as two decades, these buildings are generally an impressive lot. The hand-carved stonework, Spanish-tile roofs and arched brick entranceways are reminiscent of the Plaza and the Liberty Memorial — Kansas City's golden age.
Developers unwilling to invest in the city's urban core can get in on the action, too. Though the majority of these forgotten schools are in the city's more impoverished neighborhoods, some are near rehabbed houses and new, upscale condos.
To help with the marketing effort, The Pitch has collected square footage and property values from the Jackson County Tax Assessor's Office, gathered historical data from the Kansas City, Missouri, Public Library's archives and consulted John Duncan, a retired educator who serves as unofficial school-district historian.
Owning more than 418,000 square feet of abandoned buildings makes the Kansas City, Missouri, School District the metro's biggest slumlord — and we say it's time for the public to act!
Bancroft Elementary
4300 Tracy
Act now on this one, because it’s one of only two schools that we saw with a for-sale sign on it. Picture low-income apartments or senior housing on this hill just blocks above Brush Creek.
History: Named for local historian George Bancroft, this building started out as a two-room schoolhouse in 1904. In 1996, Bancroft adopted a novel curriculum geared toward raising “a legitimate sense of integrity,” but that wasn’t enough to keep the school district from closing it in 2000.
Square footage: 23,376
Price: $378,336
Switzer School, West Junior High
and Switzer Annex
1810 and 1829 Madison
Yuppies continue to renovate and build on the West Side, and here’s a future condominium complex in the making. Not far from Mexican bakeries and upscale bistros, this complex of 10 lots has the potential to be a Kansas City gem once again.
History: Switzer opened in 1881 and served as a middle school for the children of West Side immigrants, first Scandinavians and then Mexicans. Educators figured the kids wouldn’t go to high school, so Switzer offered classes from seventh through 10th grades. The oldest of the abandoned schools, it’s also one of the longest abandoned, having closed in the 1980s.
Square footage: 82,596
Price: $1.6 million
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I hate that these schools were closed and now being put up for sale. Mansions, Business headquarters, Condos etc. This is horrible! Why not use these buildings for homeless teens, recreational activities or mentoring buildings? This is one of the main issue with our children today. We put them out to create revenue so that we could take long trips to foreign countries. There is so much more that we can do with these buildings.
With this article, and then the article in the Star today (8.16.08) about the kcmo school district yet again tossing out a the reading program for the entire district a week before schools starts you have to wonder. Then in another article they discuss a mentoring program that is going on in DeSoto KS and many other districts across the nation that pairs up an adult volunteer with a student, I can see a way that many adult retirees, college students, and others could get involved with the KCMO school district and mentor just one student in the district and help them improve the district. Many times these students in our urban core schools have single parents who work two or three jobs to put food on the table, so the kids are left to their own devices to get homework done, or mom and dad didn't graduate because of similar issues in their lives, if we had a souce of outside mentors we might see improvements in the district.
With this article, and then the article in the Star today (8.16.08) about the kcmo school district yet again tossing out a the reading program for the entire district a week before schools starts you have to wonder. Then in another article they discuss a mentoring program that is going on in DeSoto KS and many other districts across the nation that pairs up an adult volunteer with a student, I can see a way that many adult retirees, college students, and others could get involved with the KCMO school district and mentor just one student in the district and help them improve the district. Many times these students in our urban core schools have single parents who work two or three jobs to put food on the table, so the kids are left to their own devices to get homework done, or mom and dad didn't graduate because of similar issues in their lives, if we had a souce of outside mentors we might see improvements in the district.
I don't understand why the constituents of the KC, MO school board constantly put up with the mismanagement that it's School Board exhibits over and over and over. I am not happy with all of the dealings of the KCK School Board, but it is eons ahead of Kansas City, MO. This hapless Board does not seem to know any of the rudiments of economics or who they are responsible to. Really, they never seem to learn from past mistakes and keep repeating the sames ones over and over. The children of this district deserve better. Why the parents/voters keep enabling them is beyond my comprehension.
I don't understand why the constituents of the KC, MO school board constantly put up with the mismanagement that it's School Board exhibits over and over and over. I am not happy with all of the dealings of the KCK School Board, but it is eons ahead of Kansas City, MO. This hapless Board does not seem to know any of the rudiments of economics or who they are responsible to. Really, they never seem to learn from past mistakes and keep repeating the sames ones over and over. The children of this district deserve better. Why the parents/voters keep enabling them is beyond my comprehension.
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