Dist. 200 leaders hold out hope for Hubble auction

Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 Superintendent Brian Harris said he thinks developers holding off showing interest in the former Hubble Middle School property does not mean a public auction on Monday will lack offers.

Instead, he said, it is a sign that they do not want to tip their hand as the district prepares to open the bidding at $5 million.

“That’s what it is, exactly,” he said. “Basically, it’s a contest.”

But Harris said “interest hasn’t changed” since more than 25 interested parties picked up bid packets during a 60-day closed-bid auction. That auction garnered no bids and officials have said that a $10 million minimum bid might have been too high.

Before the school district’s board meeting Wednesday, Harris and board President Rosemary Swanson said they remain confident that Monday’s auction, which will be held at 2 p.m. at the School Service Center, 130 W. Park Ave. in Wheaton, will be more successful. Swanson said she hopes for and expects a bidding war.

“The thought that it would not be worth that much, I cannot go with that,” Swanson said. “It just takes a little more time (to find the right value) with a public process.”

In February, the school district placed the 22-acre site on the highly visible northwest corner of Roosevelt and Naperville roads up for auction. After 60 days, officials announced April 14 that no official bids had come in.

Soon thereafter, they announced that an open public auction with a minimum bid of $5 million would be held. Harris said school board members met Wednesday in closed session to discuss options in case no interested parties attended the auction Monday.

But either way, Swanson and Harris both said, they would not change tactics as they try to return the property onto the city and school district’s tax rolls.

“We are committed to selling that property,” Swanson said. “We are not going to give it away, that’s for sure.”

The park district has long been the most vocal interested party as officials hope to retain use of the former school’s gymnasiums and ball fields.

The school district rejected aggressive overtures by park officials, who have a mixed-use plan in mind that would include light commercial industry on the property’s southeast corner.

But the school district has included a requirement in its bid request that a bidder make a “good-faith effort” to work with the park district, a clause meant to appease both park officials and residents who had supported the park district’s plan.

Earlier Wednesday, park board Vice President Terry Mee said the district had no plans to attend the auction but that park officials continue to hope they retain use of the property.

“Because there is an auction and we don’t participate does not mean that we are not interested,” he said. “We still have the same interest in the property we had a week ago, a month ago, a year ago. We are still very interested in that property.”