A decision on potential relocation of the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts was delayed Thursday night after the Hamilton County school board delayed a vote on the potential purchase of the former Sears and J.C. Penney stores at Northgate Mall in Hixson.
The board added a proposal to buy the Sears parcel for $6.5 million and the J.C.Penney parcel for $2.4 million to its agenda during a board meeting to review the agenda Monday night, but board chairman Joe Wingate, of District 7, quickly pulled the items Thursday.
The developers are still assessing the best price, district officials told the Times Free Press Thursday.
The postponement of the vote comes after a week of debate among board members, with several questioning the $8.9 million price tag for the two properties.
Chattanooga developer Bassam Issa, in a joint venture with John Woods, the chief executive officer at asset manager 0f Southport Capital, purchased the Sears store after news broke in April that the district was eyeing the 15-acre tract - Issa, as part of a development group, already bought the vacant J.C. Penney store from the Simon Group in 2019.
Renderings of a new location for Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts dated March 2, 2020 depict a new school building, gymnasium, soccer field, playgrounds and parking lots on the former Sears site at Northgate Mall in Hixson. The renderings will be presented to the Hamilton County school board during its Thursday, April 23 meeting.Board member Steve Highlander questioned the proposed price Monday, which he claimed is almost double the $3.5 to 4 million that district officials initially estimated the Sears property would cost taxpayers.
"You realize this is double what [Issa] paid for it?" Highlander asked the district's chief 0perations officer, Justin Robertson. "I don't mind people making a profit, but I don't think they should make it off of county agencies."
Issa and Woods both maintain that the $8.9 million proposal was a fair price with a small profit margin.
Issa told the Times Free Press that he and Woods will make about a 15% profit on one property and break even on the other - far less than the profit they would have made if they developed the property for commercial or residential purposes.
The board has not officially set a meeting date, but it tentatively agreed on meeting July 2 to vote on the potential purchase as well as to discuss recommendations on reopening schools this fall from the district's COVID-19 task force.
Contact Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.
A TIMELINE OF THE SEARS PURCHASE DEBATE
— Jan. 2020: Chattanooga School for Liberal Arts parents, along with other magnet school parents, remain concerned that a draft of Hamilton County School’s 10-year-facilities report does not recommend a new home for the school. CSLA has been considered one of the district’s worst school facilities since a 1999 facilities report.— On March 3, a consulting group presents the final recommended plan for the district’s facilities to the school board. The report does not identify a new home for CSLA but does include it as one of the district’s most urgent priorities in “Phase Zero” of the plan.— In April, district officials announce that they are considering purchasing the former Sears property at Northgate Mall to renovate as house a new K-12 school building for CSLA. District officials had been discussing the possible plan for months and CSLA teachers and families were hopeful.— The same week, news broke that developer Bassam Issa, in a joint venture with John J. Woods and mall owner CBL Properties Inc., was under contract and later purchased the property.— Over the course of a couple months, Issa and Woods meet with a variety of school board members, district officials and Hamilton County commissioners in an attempt to negotiate a deal.— On June 15, letters of intent to purchase the Sears and J.C. Penney properties are added to the school board’s voting agenda during its June 18 meeting. Several board members raise concerns about the $8.9 million price tag and question the profit potentially being made by the developer.— On June 18, the vote to purchase the properties is postponed until July.