Here We Go Again, A Possible Buyer For Duluth’s Central High School

Since 2011 Duluth's Central High School has sat vacant on top of the hill sitting on some of the most prime real estate in the city.  There have been several attempts to purchase the 77-acre property but all potential sales as of now have fallen through.

Local Realtor Greg Follmer said to Business North: “Right now we have three offers, one of them very good. The market is different now. There’s a real estate shortage. It just happens to be a great time to build.”

It seems like controversy constantly surrounded the school even when it was used as an actual high school when they decided to build classrooms without walls. And in 2011 amid a lot of controversies, the doors of the building were closed for good. The move forced students who still wanted to attend a public High School to attend either Denfeld or East High School causing some overcrowding in the classroom.

According to Harry Welty a former student and school board member since the building has sat idle the cost to just heat the building has cost the city of Duluth three-quarters of a million dollars a year.

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One of the potential buyers that seemed to make the most sense was a bid from Duluth Edison Charter schools which wanted to and still is planning on opening a high school. But apparently, it is "school board policy" not to sell the property to a competing institution.

There are still many uncertainties at this time but Follmer said if this all goes through it will be some kind of housing. It is not sure what type of housing it will be whether it is apartments, condominiums, or what. If you have driven by the property recently you can see that many trees have been taken down and a back road has been built to help set up utilities. So in seeing that work being done maybe this will make the property more appealing and a sale will actually go through this time?