# Old High School Building For Sale Nebraska



## gizmoraleon

This Listing was just posted up for Auction on the big E.
Former High school in Nebraska for sale over 22,000 sf on 3.6 acres 2 buildings!
here is the link:

Needs work, But if it goes for a good price what a Mansion that would be.


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## gizmoraleon

Oh Yeah, I almost forgot, Small town, Backs up to Farmland, And Animal rights.


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## chewie

a small town near us did this too, sold it for something like a dollar. its about what it was worth--place was a firetrap, no insulation and to do anything with it would probably cost more than building new. now, if you can/want to tear it down for the land its on, then maybe?


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## wharton

I have spent a few decades in institutional/commercial/industrial construction. Bottom line is that there are thousands of these across the states. As an individual owner, you buy the places for next to nothing, thinking you won the lottery, with big dreams of everything from a massive home, to an art center. You call a few contractors in, (not the guy with the step ladder and the minivan, you need the big boys that can replace a 20,000 sq. foot flat roof in a few days, rebuild a two million BTU boiler, or re-point a half million bricks). You get estimates to replace the roof, mitigate the mold and the Asbestos, clean out all the debris and replace 150 single pane windows, each the size of a pick-up truck bed. After you look at your $800,000 pile of repair estimates, and think about the $2-3000/ month utilities, you put your very own earthbound Titanic on Ebay and pray to God that some other fool relieves you of the horrendous mistake you have made. In the end the town gets a grant to demo the place and ends up with a nice park. This story will be repeating itself for generations to come.


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## Capt Quirk

Darn... local pick up only. It woulda looked good, down by the creek amongst all the oaks.


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## gizmoraleon

I guess it's lucky that this is a relatively Small school then. only a 4000 sq.Foot roof


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## Bluesgal

Um... let's see. The pictures show alot of water damage. The building is plaster and lathe construction.. based upon that I'd bet it has knob and tube wiring which would ALL need to be replaced and I'd bet the plumbing system is original too. About the only thing salvagable seems to be the some of the interior woodwork (as on the staircase). The place needs a gut rehab, a new roof, new windows (and how many lentils need to be replaced?), new heating system, new electrical, and the list goes on and on...... Even if it was bought for a $1 the renovation/rehab would cost big $$. More than it would to build something new.

As wharton said, it's a knock down (and even that costs $$). Shame though, it was probably once a beautiful building.


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## Michael W. Smith

I'm thinking what wharton said is about right on.

I know of one old school that was turned into a fire department. (The old fire department was an old wooden building that would have burnt to the ground very quickly if it ever caught on fire - even with the full fire department crew there!) I believe the school district pretty much gave the land and property to them - and they are now in the process of fundraising to build a new building. The old building just is not efficient at all!

I've seen one old school that is now a furniture store. I have no idea what kind of deal they got to buy it or what all they did to remodel it.

I know of another old school that was bought by people and going to be turned into an old folks home / assisted living facility. Those people did nothing with it and the building sat there for years deteriorating even more. Some new group came in and bought and was going to turn it into apartments. After several years of doing nothing - the building is now up for sale again. Meanwhile it keeps deteriorating more and more.

No matter how "cheap" the place is, unless you've recently won the lottery, you won't ever have the money to remodel it. Those old huge windows will have to be replaced. The roof will need replaced. The electrical will need replaced. The plumbing will need replaced. And as you start doing those things - you'll discover scads of other things that aren't right and need fixed.

Yep, those "cheap" places can certainly fill your head of things you could do to it. But you'll quickly find out there is NOTHING cheap about it!


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## BarbadosSheep

Gorgeous building with great potential!! But two words come to mind that would be a deal breaker for me. Asbestos and Lead. Can you imagine how much it would cost to get the lead and asbestos out of that structure, which is what you'd have to do to make it into a commercial building of any sort. It's a shame though....the building really is very attractive.


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## Classof66

I was reading recently about an old school building that is used as a retreat and reunion center. Some of the rooms are made into suites, and others into dorm style rooms. There are kitchen facilities, and the gym can be used for games etc. I cannot remember where this is tho, altho I think it is somewhere in the Midwest. A budget type convention center might be a good idea in an area that is not terribly remote. There are churches and groups that would love to find a retreat center that is family friendly and economical.

There is a retired school in Smolan, Ks. A very small town, which is a barbecue restaurant. I have not been there, but it looks like a cool place. The rooms are decorated in different themes. It is near Salina. 

One could put in a couple of apartments on the second floor to help with cash flow.

I am not crazy tho, I realize what a huge undertaking anything like this could be. I know of a lot of old buildings that have been bought with the best of intentions and the maintenance was forbidding. One would need to be handy, be fairly near a population center and have plenty of investment capital. 

I own one nice rental house in a nice small town, good schools, and close to a larger city. There are days I would be willing to give it away......

Google the Smolan School tho, it looks like a cool place. Have any of you ever been there?


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## ErinP

When was oakdale's high school last in regular use??? They've been consolidated with Neliegh since at least the mid-80s... ie, its probably been a LONG time since it saw routine maintenance.


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## SilverFlame819

Asbestos or not... That old building is SO cool looking!


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## Seeria

Michael W. Smith said:


> No matter how "cheap" the place is, unless you've recently won the lottery, you won't ever have the money to remodel it. Those old huge windows will have to be replaced. The roof will need replaced. The electrical will need replaced. The plumbing will need replaced. And as you start doing those things - you'll discover scads of other things that aren't right and need fixed.
> 
> Yep, those "cheap" places can certainly fill your head of things you could do to it. But you'll quickly find out there is NOTHING cheap about it!


With a place that small, seems to me doing a build-around with strawbale housing would work great. Screw the old electric and heaters. Build with the new alternatives. Unless of course there is some code forbidding that


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## wharton

This past Sunday I grabbed the newspaper from the area where the DW and I grew up. My old elementary school is an early 1900s building worthy of a Rockwell painting. The town bought it from the school district in 2000. After a decade of trying every angle they could to create a viable multi-use structure (police station, municipal building, post office, etc....) they finally gave up and voted to demolish the structure. Like I had mentioned earlier in the thread, this is the regrettable fate of most of these structures in our society.
My mother was a decades long board member at that district. She and another member were well know as the troublemakers who would fight the other members over their refusal to properly maintain the district buildings. The others won, and now there is a mega-campus on the edge of town. unfortunately they left a beautiful building, wounded and on life support, that could not be saved. One day we will learn how short sighted this mentality is. We neglect old structures until they are beyond repair, and allow fools like Wal-Mart to abandon stores, so they can move a half mile away and build monsterous new ones.
At the other extreme, I recently talked to a developer that was ready to start converting a school to a large multi- unit apartment building. I not only have a lot of respect for the guy, but in this case, the district was selling a rock solid old school that they had maintained and upgraded. After getting most of the approvals, the town dropped a surprise on him. The town had recently sold their water and sewer plants to a private company. Like a lot of smaller, less savvy institutions, they were sold on all the wonderful "benefits" of privatization. They later learned the gravity of what they agreed to. The company requires a $14,000 fee for every new sewer hook-up. So the apartment conversion would require a fee of nearly 1/3 of a million bucks for the right to continue to use the existing sewer and water connections. Game over, and the town also lost a proposed townhouse development. Interesting tale of the results of poor leadership in our communities.


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