Sullivan County Democrat
Callicoon, New York
April 10, 2012 Issue
National Award-winning, Family-run Newspaper
Established 1891
www.sc-democrat.com
info@sc-democrat.com
news | sports | obituaries | archives | classifieds | subscribe | links | contact | tv listings | lottery
Weather

WXPort

Community

"The Wild Gardener"
Peter Loewer's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"The Mouth That Roars"
Bill Liblick's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"Inside Out"
Jeanne Sager's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"Give Us Paws"
Ruth Huggler's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"Retrospect"
John Conway's Look Back at the History of Sullivan County

Sullivan Renaissance

Sullivan County Chamber
Of Commerce & Industry

Sullivan County
Visitor's Association

Sullivan County
Government Center

Sullivan County
Partnership for
Economic Development

Please visit our
Community Links
section for other
Sullivan County
Organizations

PLEASE NOTE: If you bookmark a particular link from the current news, sports or obituaries offered on our Website, be aware that the URL address will change once it is archived. Bookmarking an archived link is therefore the surest way to retain access to a particular article.

 

Sullivan West may hire broker to sell closed schools

By Dan Hust
LAKE HUNTINGTON — Sullivan West’s school board is considering letting real estate brokers make them offers on selling the closed Narrowsburg and Delaware Valley campuses.
SW Superintendent Ken Hilton told the board at a facilities needs forum last week that a local commercial real estate broker had contacted him, offering to help the district unload the schools – albeit for a six percent commission.
Hilton does not have the authority to approve such a deal. In fact, the school would have to bid it out, with the winning broker being the one with the smallest commission.
The board is expected to take up the matter at its next regular meeting on December 1 (7 p.m. at the high school in Lake Huntington).
“I’ll probably recommend to the board that we go fishing for a potential broker,” Hilton affirmed this week.
He did recall, however, that the district tried the same route about a year and a half ago and garnered a single bidder, who wanted an eight percent commission. The board ultimately opted not to use a broker.
The campuses have since gone into and out of contract with developer Ilwon Kang, who bid $3 million to obtain both DV and Narrowsburg, then dropped out after he and the board could not agree on the terms of extending the due-diligence period.
If the schools are sold, a new state law will effectively reduce the benefit SW otherwise would have gotten.
Any sale proceeds must go to paying down existing debt, which tops $34 million. Much of that debt is paid for with state aid, which will be reduced when the campuses are sold, per the new law.
While the reduction won’t result in SW paying more than it currently does ($700,000 per year) on the existing debt, the decrease in aid from the schools’ sales means the district won’t reduce that debt payment as much as it had hoped.
Assuming the involved parcels are sold at their appraised value of just over $3.3 million, Hilton told forum attendees that SW will save approximately $73,000 a year on that annual $700,000 debt payment, rather than the $256,538-per-year savings calculated under the old rules.
Sold!
In the meantime, one SW parcel actually has been sold: the 58 vacant acres adjoining the DV school in Callicoon.
According to Hilton, successful bidder Richard Winter – who wants to turn the property into a beef cattle farm – closed on the deal by sending a check for the full amount ($205,000) to the district on Thursday.
“The check is already deposited,” Hilton confirmed.

 
Copyright © 1999-2012 Catskill-Delaware Publications.
The information you receive online from the Sullivan County Democrat Online Edition is protected by the copyright laws
of the United States. Please read our user agreement and our use information
privacy statement.
Internet Services provided by Time Warner, Site Design by Green Enterprises

Please be aware that once a new issue is posted on this site, the immediate previous issue's links change. Check our Archives section to obtain the new links for old issues.
top of page       top of page