Developer backs out of deal to buy Erie's Irving School for low-income senior housing

Ed Palattella, Erie Times-News

May 5, 2022 at 10:00 PM·6 min read

The Erie School District's former Irving Elementary School is back on the market and no longer targeted for low-income senior housing.

A developer has backed out of a purchase agreement to buy the 125-year-old building and adjoining property for $400,000.

The developer, Woda Cooper Development Inc., of Columbus, Ohio, which reached the purchase agreement with the Erie School District in October, terminated the deal because it was "unable to obtain the necessary local financing approvals," according to an April 6 letter from Woda Cooper to the district.

Prospective sale:Erie School District in $400K deal to sell Irving School to developer of low-income senior housing

Woda Cooper, which already has three housing developments in Erie County, planned to raze the 60,663-square-foot Irving, at 2310 Plum St., and build a 60-unit building for low-income and affordable senior housing on the site, just east of Washington Park. Under the deal, Woda Cooper was also to buy the 2.32 acres on which Irving sits and 1.77 acres that includes a softball field next to the school.

Woda Cooper intended to apply for federal tax credits for low-income housing for the project, according to the purchase agreement. Woda Cooper's architect for the project had put the cost of the new building at $5.9 million, less than the $8.6 million to $10 million the developer said it would have to spend to renovate all or part of the existing Irving building.

Irving Elementary School, shown here in June, covers 60,600 square feet on four acres at West 24th and Plum Streets in Erie. Opened in 1897 and closed by Erie School District officials following the 2011-2012 school year, the building is back up for sale after a deal between the school district and a developer fell through.

The purchase agreement allowed Woda Cooper to terminate the deal if it was unable to secure financing and other necessary approvals by the end of 2022. The purchase agreement also stipulated that the sale had to get court approval because the Erie School District was selling public property to a for-profit entity.

The sale process did not get far enough to require approval from an Erie County judge. Woda Cooper and the Erie School District never closed on the deal, and the district never received the $400,000.

Project received zoning OK

Woda Cooper in December received a zoning variance to build the housing complex in the Irving neighborhood, which is zoned R-2, for medium density residential.

The Erie Zoning Hearing Board — at a hearing at which it heard about the projected cost and scope of the project from the project architect, Dale Roth — granted the variance with several conditions. They included that the school district and Woda Cooper pursue plans to maintain property next to the school as a public green space.

Zoning approval:Proposed Avalon, Irving School developments granted zoning variances for construction

Though Woda Cooper got through the zoning hurdles, it could not get past financial concerns.

"We appreciate the efforts of the School Board and City trying to create affordable senior housing," Maia P. Cooper, vice president of Woda Cooper Companies Inc., which includes Woda Cooper Development, said to the Erie Times-News in a statement on Thursday. "Unfortunately, we determined that the project was not financially feasible."

The termination of the purchase agreement came up at the Erie School Board's monthly committee-of-the-whole study session on Wednesday night.

Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito told the board that he adjusted the district's proposed 2022-23 budget to reflect that the district would get no revenue from what had been the expected sale of Irving School. The school district closed Irving in 2012 due to declining enrollment.

Revenue "from the sale of Irving has been removed because that deal did fall through," Polito told the board.

Woda Cooper's April 6 letter, which the Erie Times-News received from the school district under the Right-to-Know Law, states that the developer ended the purchase agreement in accordance with the terms of the deal that allowed for termination.

"It is disappointing that this proposal did not result in the outcome envisioned by both parties," according to the letter, signed by Andrew B. Cohen, senior vice president of Woda Cooper Companies Inc.

The Erie School District also wanted to see the project advance, said Randy Pruchnicki, who oversees real estate for the district as its director of non-instructional support services.

"We were hoping that it would be good for the city and the neighborhood," Pruchnicki said on Thursday. "Unfortunately, it fell through. Back to the drawing board."

Randy Pruchnicki opens a door covered in a mural at Irving Elementary School in Erie on June 30, 2017, shortly after the Erie School District put Irving and its other unused buildings up for sale. Pruchnicki handles real estate matters for the Erie School District as its director of non-instructional support services for the Erie School District.

Push to sell unused district buildings

The Erie School District — with 16 school buildings and more than 10,000 students —has worked to sell unused schools and other properties since Polito started as superintendent in 2017. The district has pushed for the sales to raise money and cut costs, and has said maintaining Irving costs $33,425 a year, plus insurance.

Selling unused properties is a recommendation in the Erie School District's state-mandated financial improvement plan, adopted in 2019. The district must abide by the plan in exchange for its receipt, starting in 2018, of $14 million in additional state aid each year to stay solvent.

Since 2018, the district has sold four unused properties: the former Wayne School at East Avenue and East Sixth Street (sold for $250,000); the former Roosevelt School at West 23rd and Cranberry streets (sold for $246,500); the district's former Family Center at East Ninth Street and Payne Avenue (sold for $500,000), and its former central kitchen at East 21st and German streets (sold for $115,000).

Along with Irving, the Erie School District has one other unused building on the market: the former Burton Elementary School at 1660 Buffalo Road. The 48,956-square-foot Burton, built in 1894 and closed in 2012, is listed at $389,000.

For sale:One of Erie School District's oldest buildings is back on market: $389K for Burton School

Irving for sale once more

Woda Cooper, the now-former prospective buyer of the Irving property, specializes in using tax credits to develop affordable and low-income housing, including for seniors, in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest and South Atlantic states.

Woda Cooper's three developments in Erie County are:

Willow Commons, a 45-unit apartment complex for seniors that opened in 2017 in the renovated 1919 Wesleyville Public School, at 2064 Willow St. in Wesleyvlle.
Arneman Place, a 50-apartment complex built on the site of the former Lawrence Park Drive-In property at 4690 Iroquois Ave. in Harborcreek Township.
Meyers Green, a complex in which Woda preserved 12 low-income townhouses on Chord Road in Corry.

No longer on the list is Irving School, which the Erie School District opened in 1897 as Public School No. 6. The district renamed the building in 1914 after American author Washington Irving, who wrote "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

The Erie School District is once again courting would-be buyers for Irving.

"We are taking offers," Pruchnicki said.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

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This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie development: Ohio company ends bid to buy former Irving School