Rochester Arts and Sciences Academy paid $5 million to buy its school campus

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Updated ·1 min read

Aug. 2—ROCHESTER — The Rochester Arts and Sciences Academy

recently made the grade by paying $5 million for its northwest school building.

The academy purchased the two-story, 40,500-square-foot complex at 2521 Pennington Drive NW from Woodbury, Minn.-based M5 Holdings-Rochester, LLC on July 31, 2023. Olmsted County estimated the building's total market value at $3.8 million for 2023-2024.

While the closing of the purchase is new, the school building is very familiar to the academy. RASA moved into the building last summer, renovated it and now offers classes there.

RASA's transformation of the property into an education center for elementary and middle school students is the latest milestone for the 18-year-old building.

M5 Holdings is led by Mike Myhre. Myhre's family owned the Minnesota School of Business/Globe University.

In 2005, the school purchased open land in northwest Rochester from

Carmike Cinemas

for $1.85 million.

The Pennington Drive complex was soon built

to house the Rochester campus of the Minnesota School of Business.

In 2017, the for-profit school was forced to close due to

charges that the organization misled and defrauded students.

The school later filed for bankruptcy.

In the months after the closure,

Rochester Public Schools considered buying the building

for $5.1 million. However, RPS later

backed out of that deal.

The Rochester Beacon Academy, a local charter school,

soon leased some of the building

and operated there for several years.