Current plans for Marylawn -- sale to Orange BOE progressing

This is an interesting update, buried under a generic title:

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/id/117810-Haven-t-seen-this-discussed-in-awhile-#comment-3037302

Good update from Village Green summarizing where things stand with Marylawn, which is on its way to becoming an East Orange STEM magnet high school.

http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/orange-board-ed-purchasing-marylawn-academy-south-orange/

susan1014 said:

Good update from Village Green summarizing where things stand with Marylawn, which is on its way to becoming an East Orange STEM magnet high school.

http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/orange-board-ed-purchasing-marylawn-academy-south-orange/

Orange or East Orange?

Orange, sorry for the typo

I am sure the neighbors who opposed a medical school are not going to be happy about this, either. The new use, however, presumably does not need a variance, so neighbors may not have the same public channels to voice concerns.

Keep the School a School!  Oh wait......

The neighbors will probably be fine with it - it was a high school and will continue to be so.  

It will increase traffic...as a private school it has 160 students and 2about 22 teachers....when it becomes a public school it will be full capacity....as a magnet school, it should attract better students who can be transferred out if they act up too much.....as opposed to a regular public school that can't as easily expel problem students.

To me, the interesting question will be what they do with the decaying mansion and tennis courts. 

Orange has about 5700 students, according to their District site, and aims to have 20% of high school age students at the new STEM school.  At this point, their high schools are grade 10-12. If their students are distributed evenly across grades K-12 (quite possibly not true) that could mean an aim to have about 100 more students at the site than Marylawn did (at least at the end).  

No clue if the building is large enough for that, especially given the likely space needs of a STEM school (more labs, etc).

Anyway, as said above, this is a continuation of an existing use, so probably the least disruption to the neighborhood, and no variances needed unless they want to make changes.  

From the Village Green Article:

"Grades 9 and 10 will include core instruction. Grades 11-12 include
personalized instruction for future specific courses and off-site
internships/ventures. Grades 13 and 14 will be taught in conjunction
with a college/university, allowing students to complete their AA.”

So now, we not only have a private University continuing to buy properties in the Village and take them off our tax rolls, we now will have a neighboring town doing the same.  Beyond that, our neighbors are also apparently planning to operate a community college within our borders, which would also be a tax exempt use.   At the same time, they will likely earn revenue from their partnership with whatever college/university they agree to work with on this, while we lose property tax revenue. 

Yes I know this property is not currently on the tax rolls so it's not a "loss" per se, but it could have been a gain in real tax ratables if we had encouraged a sale to a private developer through incentives and worked with the neighborhood association to assuage concerns, etc.  It probably would have been better than this outcome.  

You're right about the taxes, but I like the vibe.  I really don't have a problem with this.

Any recent updates on this? The property does not look like it has been touched at all since the school originally closed. Is it still for sale? I just thought of someone who would be interested in buying it, with the notion to keep it a small private school for younger-aged kids. I won't name names, but they are outgrowing their current (small) space,and they have investors with very deep pockets...

maplewoodlax2020 said:

Any recent updates on this? The property does not look like it has been touched at all since the school originally closed. Is it still for sale? I just thought of someone who would be interested in buying it, with the notion to keep it a small private school for younger-aged kids. I won't name names, but they are outgrowing their current (small) space,and they have investors with very deep pockets...

Do you belong to NextDoor? There is a discussion on there about it.

Just in from MPHDA, which is what was posted on NextDoor:

Marylawn Property to be sold to Orange Education Foundation

Sale Application will be discussed at
November 7th
South Orange Village Planning Board Meeting
7:30 P.M.
at
SOPAC
Details below

There is a hearing scheduled at 7:30 pm on November 7th 2016 with the South Orange Planning Board at SOPAC to hear the application regarding the potential sale and subsequent use of the Marylawn property. The West Montrose Neighborhood Association has been following the development and use of this property for a number of years. Below is a brief update.

The 5 + acre property (at Scotland and West Montrose) is owned by the Sisters of Charity who operated a girl's Catholic High School for over 40 years at the site. Due to financial difficulties, the school closed in June 2013. Since then the property has remained vacant and on the market.

The projected sale includes a school building with 15 classrooms, lab, library, gym and staff offices, the Graves Mansion (historic building) and adjacent property. The existence of an historic building on site has slowed the sale of the property. Previously the only serious potential buyer was Seton Hall University but they elected to go in another direction.

The current potential buyer is Orange Educational Foundation (OEF), a 501c3 entity. They plan to purchase the property and lease it to the Orange Board of Education (OBE). The school building will become a STEM school serving students from the Orange School district. According to the OBE representatives the external footprint will not change however there will be some internal modification to meet ADA requirement among others. Overall they indicated the school building was in excellent condition. At the Historic Preservation Commission hearing. OBE testified that there are no immediate plans for the historic Graves Mansion however it will be protected and maintained.

Obviously, this is an unusual transaction, a third party purchasing a school building in one district and leasing it for use by another school district. In addition, there are community concerns such as; hours of operation, size and level of student body, transportation in and out of the site, SO municipal services to be provided and others. The format of the Hearing provides the opportunity for questions and comments from the public. Please plan to attend the Planning Board meeting on November 7, to ask and get answers to your questions.

(Details courtesy of West Montrose Neighborhood Association)

Have no idea what NextDoor is...I just didn't want to create any speculation by current families of our school who may view this...Thanks everyone for all the info! Anybody know what the sale price is that is being discussed?

It is a private sale, not a town sale, so I guess if you want to know the sale price you could ask the Sisters or the Non profit that is buying it.

maplewoodlax2020 said:

Have no idea what NextDoor is...

NextDoor is a fairly new neighborhood-based social media site. I joined the Maplewood version but haven't really used it much.

www.nextdoor.com