The Orleans Parish School Board held a Surplus Real Estate Auction on Thursday, August 22, 2013. A total of $2,271,000 was received in contracts from successful bidders.
Some sales are pending Board approval and/or resolution of technical issues. All sales are "as is" without warranties.
By OPSB policy, the proceeds of surplus property sales are deposited into the capital budget for use to acquire new school sites, to expand existing school sites, or for other capital projects.
OPSB administrators told OPSBrief that the auction served several purposes: - Provides much needed resources for the School Facilities Master Plan
- Returns buildings to commerce, thus creating an increased tax base that provides funding for the public schools
- Reduces the operating costs (insurance, grass cutting, security, etc.) associated with maintaining property determined to be no longer needed for school purposes
- Reduces the potential for neighborhood blight and encourages other redevelopment around the properties
The results of the auction were as follows:
- Algiers Bus Barn (historic brick building with extra land) at 801 Patterson Drive in Algiers Point
- Edison Elementary School Site (vacant land adjacent to NORD playground) at 1339 Forstall Street
- Noble Special School Site (former Jackson Barracks site) at 2201 Dubreuil Street
- Seabrook School Site (vacant land) at 2717 Athis Street (off Franklin Avenue)
- Lake Forest Montessori Site (vacant land) at 8258 Lake Forest Boulevard
- O.C. Haley Elementary School (former school building) at 2515 N. Robertson Street (corner Franklin Avenue)
- Shaw Elementary School (former school building) at 2518 Arts Street (near Franklin Avenue and Florida Boulevard)
- Withdrawn from the sale prior to the auction
- Hansberry Elementary School (former school building) at 1339 Clouet Street
- Withdrawn from the sale prior to the auction
- Timbers Office Buildings I and II (former OPSB headquarters) at 3500 & 3510 General de Gaulle Drive
