Erie School District seeks buyer for administration building while its new home awaits

Ed Palattella, Erie Times-News
Updated ·3 min read
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The Erie School District's administration building is on the market as the district gets closer to moving its central offices into another building two blocks down the street.

The district is taking bids on the purchase of the administration building, at West 21st and Sassafras streets, following the Erie School Board's unanimous vote to declare the 114-year-old structure and its parking lots "unused" and "unnecessary" under state law and thus available for sale.

The board approved the sale resolution at its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday night. On Thursday, a legal ad seeking bids on the properties was published in the Erie Times-News.

The Erie School District is taking bids for the purchase of its administration building at West 21st and Sassafras streets as the central offices prepare to move into a newer building two blocks north.
The Erie School District is taking bids for the purchase of its administration building at West 21st and Sassafras streets as the central offices prepare to move into a newer building two blocks north.

The submission deadline is May 28. The board is scheduled to award bids on the building and parking lots at its monthly meeting on June 12, according to the legal ad.

The district has already heard from prospective buyers, Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito said.

When will the district move into the new building?

Many of the approximately 75 administrators and administrative staff will continue to work in the existing building until renovations are done at the new home for the central offices.

That building, at West 19th and Sassafras streets, is a former medical office complex that Allegheny Health Network once used and that is just north of AHN's Saint Vincent Hospital. The school district bought the building from the parent company of an entity called Healthcare Trust Inc. for $2.8 million in June 2023.

The Erie School District bought this former medical office building at West 19th and Sassafras streets to replace its current administration building two blocks south, at West 21st and Sassafras streets.
The Erie School District bought this former medical office building at West 19th and Sassafras streets to replace its current administration building two blocks south, at West 21st and Sassafras streets.

Polito said the first employees to relocate will be those in the district's child accounting office, which handles enrollment. Polito said those employees will move over the summer so families can go to the new building to enroll students for the 2024-25 school year.

Why does the district need a new administration building?

The new building was erected in 2003, 93 years after the opening of the existing administration building, the former Washington School. It became the district's administration building in 1999, after the district sold what had been its headquarters at 1511 Peach St. That sale was for $550,00 to a group of social service agencies led by Perseus House.

The district's new administration building is more spacious and has a more open layout, unlike the cramped quarters of the existing building, which was designed to be a school. The existing building also needs overhauled, Polito said.

He said the district's architects estimated the building needs $13 million in renovations, including a new roof and a new heating and ventilation system.

The district is spending about $5.4 million to renovate the new building. The cost of the renovations, combined with the purchase price, is still about $4 million less than the cost of renovating the existing building, Polito said.

The district years ago set aside the money needed for the new building as part of Polito's plan to make all the district's buildings "warm, safe and dry" after years of neglect due to budget woes.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie School District administration building is for sale as move nears