D.C. to Offer 8 School Prop­er­ties for Pri­vate Use

By Jonathan O’Connell Staff Reporter

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty plans to seek pri­vate part­ners for reuse of eight for­mer school buildings.

The eight build­ings include four that are among the 23 being closed under his restruc­tur­ing of the District’s edu­ca­tion sys­tem. Con­do­mini­ums are not likely to be an option for the build­ings, how­ever, because Fenty said the schools would be leased, not sold.

“We hope to iden­tify a reuse option for these pub­lic prop­er­ties that allows us to both pre­serve and revi­tal­ize our com­mu­ni­ties,” Fenty said.

The prop­er­ties are:

Backus Mid­dle School, a 126,800-square-foot build­ing on 2.91 acres, at 5171 South Dakota Ave. NE. A por­tion of the build­ing is already being used by the D.C. Depart­ment of Motor Vehicles.

Clark Ele­men­tary School, a 53,800 square-foot build­ing on 5.51 acres, at 4501 Sev­enth St. NW.

Grimke Ele­men­tary School at 1923 Ver­mont Ave. NW, which had been used as gov­ern­ment offices.

J.F. Cook Ele­men­tary School, a 43,500-square-foot build­ing on 0.76 acres, at 30 P St. NW.

M.M. Wash­ing­ton Career Senior High School, a 89,700-square-foot foot build­ing on 2.14 acres, at 27 O St. NE.

Ran­dle High­lands Ele­men­tary School, at 1650 30th St. SE.

Taft Cen­ter, at 1800 Perry Street NE.

Two addi­tional schools, Hine Junior High School near East­ern Mar­ket and Stevens Ele­men­tary School on 21st St. NW, are already under the con­trol of Neil Albert, deputy mayor for plan­ning and eco­nomic development.

On June 20, Fenty announced that seven other closed schools would be used for char­ter schools, non­prof­its and gov­ern­ment offices.