Nearby scrap yard offers to buy Brownsville Middle School


  • January 19, 2015
  • /   Reggie Dogan
  • /   education
A scrap yard company that is facing a lawsuit from nearby residents is offering to buy Brownsville Middle School. GSI Brokerage Inc. has offered Escambia County School District $475,000 to buy the property at Avery Street and Hollywood Avenue. School Board members are expected to approve the offer on Tuesday at its monthly meeting. The company shares an address — 1831 N. Hollywood Ave. — with GSI Recycling, a scrap yard and shredder operation. GSI Recycling is across the street from the Brownsville school property and behind Oakcrest Elementary School. School officials in past years have expressed concerns about the scrap yard, and a lawsuit against GSI Recycling was filed because of its location near Oakcrest Elementary School. “We had reservations about selling the property because of Oakcrest Elementary behind it,” said Shawn Dennis, the district's assistant superintendent of operations. Part of the sales agreement stipulates that the company cannot use the property as a “scrap yard or any similar purpose.” The restriction is valid as long as Oakcrest Elementary is open, and for one year after the school is closed. Dennis said the company plans to use part of the building for office space and use the remaining property for parking. Since the school closed in 2007, the property has attracted the attention of other buyers over the past few years. Last year, the Rev. Paul Porterfield of Body of Christ Ministries Inc., offered to buy the school for $500,000. School Board members were about to sign off on a deal before vandals damaged the building. The board agreed to adjust the price because of the damage, but the deal fell through because Porterfield was unable to raise the money the buy it, Dennis said. In 2009, the Rev. LuTimothy May and his congregation at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church offered to buy the building for $800,000. The district made a counteroffer of a little more $1 million, but the deal ultimately fell apart in acrimony. Before GSI’s offer, the School District was planning to tear down the building and sell the property, Dennis said. It would have cost up to $175,000 to demolish the building. The property value would have gone down as well, and the district would have only broken even on selling the property without the building, Dennis said “It would have been a net zero proposition,” Dennis said. “Instead it’s a win-win for the district.”
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