Greenwood finalizes purchase of middle school property
GREENWOOD, Ind. (WISH) — The City of Greenwood through its redevelopment commission has officially purchased the current Greenwood Middle School property for development.
A new middle school building in southeast Greenwood will be open by next fall.
That means new plans for the current building and its 17 acres in the heart of the city’s downtown.
“There are just so many different opportunities that this opens up,” Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said.
The whole school property along Madison Avenue in downtown Greenwood is becoming a blank slate for development.
The middle school is moving to a new state-of-the-art facility.
“The school was 60 years old, had been renovated five times already and had just ended its life,” Myers said.
The superintendent approached the mayor about the land two years ago.
“To see if the city would be interested in purchasing the property where the middle school currently sits, which absolutely we were excited to do that,” he said.
The sale has officially gone through at a price of $1 million dollars, paid with Tax Increment Finance District funds.
That’s tax money generated from economic development, not money from tax payers.
“A perfect, genuine example of how TIF money should be used,” Greenwood Redevelopment Commission Vice President Mike Tapp said.
“This gives us the opportunity for the best of both worlds, we have our old downtown that’s being renovated and we can turn this into a new downtown area,” Myers said.
Myers said the next step is talking with developers and architects to see what the area could become.
“New shopping areas, new businesses, new retail, residential,” he said, “It’s a clean slate with 17 acres in downtown, which is a great thing to have.”
He said this purchase also fits into the plan to make Greenwood more connected with surrounding cities.
“Since it’s right on Madison Avenue, we’re still proposing the Red Line come through Greenwood, and it would have a stop right there in front of this area,” Myers said.
Right now there’s no timeline on when construction would begin.
The city will wait to make sure the kids get into the new school building in the fall before making changes to the current property.