The DeKalb County School District is again weighing whether to sell an unused swath of land near I-85, but the amount it might get has dropped considerably since the last buyer came shopping before the recession, say people familiar with the potential deal.
A real estate broker said officials are considering his proposal for an old high school site on North Druid Hills Road near Briarcliff Road.
The broker, Caldwell Zimmerman, said the Department of Veterans Affairs wants to build a health care facility, probably for outpatient care, on 12 to 15 acres, part of a larger property the school system considered selling to a commercial developer several years ago.
Zimmerman, who is with Colliers International, said the offer will be based on appraisals, but estimated the land is worth $800,000 to $1 million an acre.
"I've had a call back from the chief operating officer of the school system," Zimmerman said. "He said they are discussing it."
School system spokesman Walter Woods said of the proposal: "The School District is looking at every possible option to close its budget gap and get back on solid financial footing. As we have said, everything is on the table."
Zimmerman said he first approached the school board about a year ago, but found no interest. Now, with their budget in disarray, school officials are taking his calls. DeKalb is facing a tax increase and cuts to its teaching staff to close a potential deficit of $73 million next year.
School board member Paul Womack is unenthusiastic about the possible deal. Womack, who chairs the board's budget committee, said that from what he'd heard of the offer, it "grossly undervalued" the property.
The last suitor offered about 50 percent more per acre.
In 2006, DeKalb school officials revealed they were negotiating to sell the high school and adjoining land -- 39 acres -- to developer Sembler Co. Patricia Pope, the school system's chief operations officer at the time, said the deal was worth "$60 million-plus." The company wanted to build a project mixing commercial, residential and office uses.
Womack was a vocal critic of the Sembler project before he was elected to the board.
He said the school system might need the land for a school some day. He also said he's concerned about triggering more development in the already-congested area. "I want to take a wait-and-see attitude because once that goes, then the whole area is going to become a commercial area."
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