The Oswego Village Board recently approved a series of ordinances deemed as “necessary precursors” for the eventual redevelopment of the former Traughber Junior High School site into a project featuring 161 owner-occupied townhomes and rental apartments.
Trustees in December 2025 approved a revised concept plan with fewer units for the proposed development at the 12.34-acre property – owned by Oswego-based School District 308 – at the northeast corner of Route 71 and Washington Street close to the village’s downtown.
The plan features two types of housing. Along the south side of the property adjacent to Route 71 and centrally located on the site are five three-story apartment buildings with a total of 125 units. There would also be six two-story owner-occupied townhome buildings along the north and west side of the development with a total of 36 units.
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The former Traughber Junior High School building – built originally as a high school in 1948 – would be razed as part of the proposed project. School District 308 relocated Traughber students to a new building several years ago. Since that time the site was used for some school activities. The former Traughber school was once the location for the YMCA and Oswego Senior Center as well.
District 308 officials said the Traughber building has remained in disrepair, causing the district to invest more than $250,000 annually for maintenance and other expenses.
Village staff was directed to negotiate a redevelopment agreement between the village, school district and the developer for the proposed project, called Traughber Estates.
Development of the property requires a public/private partnership and tax increment financing assistance due to the “extraordinary expense” of demolition and preparing the site as well as installing public improvements, village officials said.
The school district has requested that it first sell the property to the village, which then in turn would sell the property to the developer under the terms of a negotiated redevelopment agreement.
In all, four ordinances were recently approved as the beginning of the negotiations for the redevelopment agreement, Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo said.
“This is a necessary procedural step that is like putting a property under contract to allow a buyer to perform due diligence before closing,” Di Santo said in response to questions via email.
“Now that the agreements are approved, the developer can feel secure to spend money conducting market and traffic studies and completing engineering on the project while all three parties negotiate a redevelopment agreement,” he said.
The village created the downtown Tax Increment Financing District in 2016, and included the Traughber site within its boundaries, for the purpose of assisting the school district in redeveloping the site and placing the property back on the tax rolls, village officials said.
One of the ordinances OK’d by the Village Board recently was a purchase and sale agreement, which conveys the property from the district to the village, contingent on a 270-day due diligence inspection period to facilitate the negotiation of the redevelopment agreement, Di Santo said.
The village is not actually purchasing the property, he said.
“The village is the middle man in this transaction. We will acquire the property eventually for the sole purpose of immediately transferring it to the developer in accordance with the terms of a redevelopment agreement that is currently being negotiated,” he said.
The purchase price was established at $2.1 million, which is expected to be adjusted through the redevelopment agreement, officials said. The intent is that the village will not pay for the site, but rather the school district would be compensated through the developer’s TIF increment raised from the redevelopment of the site, Di Santo said.
Further, a shared consultant intergovernmental agreement with the school district is intended to split the cost of financial consulting services for the redevelopment agreement negotiations and protect taxpayer interests, Di Santo said.
The financial consultant will review the developer’s financial documents to verify its stated costs and market assumptions and advise the village and school district to ensure that the developer’s need for incentives is legitimate, Di Santo said.
The developer could potentially break ground of the project as early as this fall.
“The project benefits the village by activating a long dormant property in our TIF District, placing it on the tax rolls, bringing new residents to the downtown area to patronize our restaurants and retail establishments, adding needed storm water detention to the neighborhood, compensating School District 308 and reducing the estimated $250,000 annual maintenance expense to the school district,” Di Santo said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.