By: Mark Vest | West Bloomfield Beacon | Published November 22, 2024
KEEGO HARBOR/WEST BLOOMFIELD — Residents who have been awaiting the fate of the former Roosevelt Elementary School in Keego Harbor still don’t have a final decision.
Prior to closing in 2022, Roosevelt, which is more than 100 years old, was the longest continuously operating school building in Oakland County.
In 2023, in a 5-2 decision, West Bloomfield School District Board of Education members passed a recommendation to demolish the Roosevelt building and playground.
After demolition and abatement bids were approved at a separate meeting, Heart of the Lakes Community Inc., a nonprofit organization that is made up of local residents who are fighting to save the building from demolition, filed an injunction in Oakland County Circuit Court. After its attempt to secure a permanent injunction was denied, Heart of the Lakes filed an emergency motion for stay, pending appeal.
The most recent court update came this past July, when the Court of Appeals granted the nonprofit’s application for leave to appeal.
“This … means the demolition will remain stayed (WBSD can’t demolish Roosevelt) while we brief the issues stated in our application for leave,” Brad Babbitt, who is the treasurer of the Heart of the Lakes group, stated via email earlier this year.
Aside from hoping for a favorable ruling from the Court of Appeals, residents who don’t want to see the building demolished have also advocated for the West Bloomfield School District to consider selling the building to a developer who can repurpose it.
According to Keego resident David Emerling, who is part of Heart of the Lakes, there have been approximately 10 offers to purchase it.
The most recent offer of $2.5 million is the highest yet, according to Emerling, who said that amount of money would wipe out the district’s budget deficit of over $2 million.
The offer was made by Safeway Acquisition Company LLC, based in Dearborn.
At press time, a representative from Safeway had not responded to an opportunity to provide comment.
According to Emerling, Safeway would keep the “historic” front part of the building, with the rest demolished in order to make way for another building behind it.
“They never really said it would be apartments or condos,” Emerling said. “It would definitely be housing, but I don’t know what kind.”
After informing an architect he is familiar with what was happening with Roosevelt, Emerling said that he asked the architect if he knew of anyone who was interested in repurposing the building. It turns out that the architect did know of someone.
“Less than a week later, he had his buddy write a $2.5 million offer to repurpose Roosevelt and we were very, very, very happy that happened,” Emerling said.
Timothy Mullins, who is an attorney representing the school district on behalf of Giarmarco, Mullins & Horton P.C., responded to the offer.
“The board has never made a decision to sell the property, so it’s not for sale,” Mullins said. “If the board were to choose to consider selling the property or to take up the offer it could, but it never has, so it hasn’t been accepted or rejected. The property at this time is not for sale and selling the property isn’t in the current plan of the school district.”
As for what the district may want to do with the property upon potentially demolishing the building, Mullins said that it would be for a “beneficial purpose.”
“But I can’t recall if there was a specific plan,” he said.
Among the offers that have been made, one for $2 million would have meant that the existing building would remain, with the classrooms inside of it repurposed into apartments. That offer would have also allowed for a “community space,” according to Emerling.
“This would not be any of that because of (the) fact that they would gut the back end of it and build out,” Emerling said. “So it’s a completely different kind of vision of what to do, with just keeping the historic front end on it and then building a brand-new beautiful building behind it.”
Although only maintaining the front end of the building with the back portion being demolished is not as “desirable” as other options, Emerling shared what he considers the advantages of having the $2.5 million offer accepted.
“The look of the downtown of Keego Harbor would still be maintained,” he said. “Because we would still maintain the historic part of Roosevelt, but with a modern back end of it, it’s almost like the best of both worlds, and it would eliminate the issue that the school district has stated in the past, that a charter school might be moving in, so that wouldn’t be the case (because) there’s no more classrooms left. So it’s no longer a school at all, it just has a facade. I think anything that keeps the historic look of the building is still a win for us.”
One of the major concerns that has been expressed by those who have supported saving Roosevelt is the potential for environmental damage to the community if the building is demolished.
Babbitt recently discussed why he is still in favor of the offer, despite those concerns.
“We’d like to see the whole thing saved, but if not, at least the front,” Babbitt said. “It would be great to at least save the facade. We (want to) make sure if it is demolished it’s done in a professional way that guarantees the safety of the citizens. We’re worried that if the district is involved in that they won’t completely abate the building because they only wanted to abate one-seventh of the building.”
Not accepting a $2.5 million offer is a decision that Emerling said is “outrageous.”
“They have this deficit, and they have a way to fix that deficit,” he said. “The money that comes from selling any assets goes to the operating budget. They can wipe out their deficit very quickly, they can eliminate the lawsuit that they keep fighting, and they can have an asset in the district where it’s (going to) provide new housing and tax revenue to the district and to the city of Keego Harbor, but yet they don’t even talk to us.”
If the district were to decide to sell the property, Mullins explained how the process would work.
“The board sets the agenda,” he said. “So if the board decided to consider selling the property they would put that on their agenda, they would discuss it, and then make a decision. It isn’t a board item on their action agenda as of this time.”
As for how much the property may be worth, Mullins said that he is not aware of a current appraisal.
Even if the Court of Appeals rules in Heart of the Lakes’ favor and continues the stay, ultimately, the group would need support from the West Bloomfield School District Board of Education, according to Emerling.
Although Keego resident Kirsten Sonneville-Douglass, who has expressed opposition to the school district’s plans, was recently elected to the Board of Education, other board members would need to change their previous positions in order to save the former Roosevelt Elementary School building from complete demolition.
“The court can’t fix this,” Emerling said. “The school board is the only one that can fix it. The only thing the court does for us is keep delaying, which got us past the election, which is what the goal was, get a new person on the board, which we got. We’ll see what happens with the court and with the board.”
For Emerling and other residents, the former Roosevelt Elementary School building holds special significance.
“It’s a beautiful building and it is really the cornerstone of Keego Harbor,” Emerling said. “Not many small communities like Keego Harbor have (a) 104-year-old building as their centerpiece, and we just keep fighting as hard as we can to keep that building upright.”
For more information about the nonprofit, visit linktr.ee/heartofthelakescommunity.