Spirit Lake City Council Gives Final Approval To Rezoning Of Former School Property
Spirit Lake City Council Gives Final Approval To Rezoning Of Former School Property
October 27, 2021Steve Schwaller
(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake City Council Tuesday evening granted final approval to a request to rezone the former school property in the area of 20th Street and Ithaca Avenue. The former Mahannah Auditorium and Illsley buildings are located on that site. Brett Parks, the new owner of the property, told KUOO news what it was that led to his interest in acquiring the property…
“I noticed that the buildings had been sitting empty for approximately 20 years, pretty much empty. The, you know, the school had stored a lot of things there and were using part of the facility as a bus barn and operating out of there. So I kind of kept it in my back pocket and then I saw it was advertised last November to go up for public auction and perfect timing, I had just finished up another project. I like renovating older, vacant, distressed properties and keeping them out of the landfill. This building is only 86 years old and it’s built like a fortress.”
Parks says as of right now he’s planning to convert at least the old auditorium into apartments, and may do that with the Illsley building as well…
“For sure like the auditorium, that would make the most sense. The other part, you know, maybe make sense to have a private school there. It’s still laid out that way and don’t see a use for the auditorium with the great Sami Center that we’ve got, so.”
Parks added he doesn’t have a time frame yet as to when any construction would get underway.
