Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210 has sold land in Tinley Park once projected as the site of a third high school to a commercial developer for a profit.
Ten years ago, the school board paid $2.8 million for 71.9 acres at 191st Street and Harlem Avenue. Recently, it was sold for $11.5 million to Tinley Park-based W.M. Store Realty LLC, said Stacy Holland, community relations director for the school district.
Another bidder offered $8 million, Holland said.
A community survey had indicated that most residents of the rapidly growing school district wanted the district to enlarge both its freshman-sophomore center in Frankfort and its junior-senior center in New Lenox into four-year high schools. Officials then decided to keep the Tinley Park property in reserve.
“From a business standpoint, this property ended up to be a good investment for Lincoln-Way,” Supt. Lawrence Wyllie said. “I always felt this was a good site for a high school.”
But the intense commercial development around the site put the district on the lookout for another potential school site on the east side of the district, Wyllie said.
“We were fortunate to find and purchase 90 acres of the Schmaedeke farm farther south on Harlem,” he said.
Construction is under way on the farmland, where Lincoln-Way North High School is due to open in 2008.
The next new high school will be built on district-owned land on Gougar Road in New Lenox, officials said. The district also owns property on Smith Road in Manhattan.
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