The land, 114.85 acres, is at the northwest intersection of West 300S and South 500W in New Palestine.
NEW PALESTINE — Officials with the Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County may be in the midst of trying to wrap up a $49 million renovation project at New Palestine High School, but they’ve not stop thinking about future needs of the district.
During the most recent school board meeting in May, the Southern Hancock school board gave assistant superintendent Bob Yoder approval to execute a purchase agreement for property located just outside of town limits at the intersection of West 300S and South 500W in New Palestine.
The land, 114.85 acres, sits just to the southeast of New Palestine Intermediate School and is not too far from Sugar Creek Elementary and New Palestine Junior High schools.
While district officials did not want to go on record to say what the land will be used for in the future, it was noted that the property will be used for future development to keep up with the ever-growing community.
The property seller, Raesner Family Farm LLC, noted in agreement documents that the total purchase price for the property shall be $29,000 per surveyed acre, as determined by the survey obtained by buyer. That makes the total cost for the land an estimated $3.33 million.
“Right now, the only thing our board has done is given Bob the permission to execute the purchase agreement,” district communications and outreach director Craig Smith said. “That gives us the opportunity to compete in a market that is moving really fast.”
The property, on the northwest corner near the new roundabout on Gem Road, was thought to be going to a housing developer who had been working with officials from the Town of New Palestine to build several hundred new homes there. However, town officials and the developer could not agree upon construction details and the deal fell through.
The move allowed district officials to pick the land for future development they are interested in rather than having to select land in an ever-dwindling area in and around New Palestine, one of the faster growing areas in Indiana.
“We just know we had to start looking at our future growth and where we wanted that growth to be and move forward with keeping all of that in mind,” Smith said. “We want to be in a position that will give us options with future growth.”
Smith noted there is massive potential for future growth in the district, and by purchasing the land it gives district officials the broadest way to figure out the next steps.
“We know we need the property for future growth but what we do with it, we’ve had zero conversations about,” Smith said. “There are still a lot of parts to this process with many check marks and surveys yet to be done.”
Smith did say district officials want to get the purchase of the land completed as soon as possible and expected the deal to finalized within a few days.
“The whole idea of giving Bob permission to make the purchase is we don’t want this to be grabbed up by someone else,” Smith said. “We hope this is going to be signed, sealed and delivered pretty quickly.”
Officials with the Town of New Palestine noted they’ve heard from several housing developers who had shown interest in the land, with the town supplying sewer, but none of the developers could ever agree to the design elements, which town officials were adamant about.
Town manager Jim Robinson said the current farm land on that corner is closer to 118 acres and stated there must be a strip of land within the agreement that the school district wasn’t interested in purchasing only the 114.85 acres.
Robinson noted the land is actually an ideal spot for the school district to purchase because it runs right next to other district schools to the west.
“They might be able to connect them all and make a heck of a campus,” Robinson said.
Robinson, who talked with a surveyor just last week about that specific piece of land, noted $29,000 per acres seemed about right for the property.
“The property is not in the town limits and that was one of the hold ups with the developer who wanted to put in a new neighborhood,” Robinson said. “But, we will provide sewer to whatever gets developed there whenever they get the right-of-ways and we would want to annex that into town for sure.”
