The old CAPE School near Allowance Avenue in the Flats is listed for sale by the public school board, one year after a new facility was opened adjacent to Medicine Hat High School. The listing price for the 1912-era main building and several additions that sit on 0.8 acres of land is $610,000.--News photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Another former school building in Medicine Hat is among the spring real estate listings.
The 1912 era building on Balmoral Street and Allowance Avenue, most recently home to CAPE School two years ago, is listed for sale by Commercial One real estate on behalf of the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education.
The asking price is $609,000 for the 19,0000 square-foot school, which has had several more modern extensions, underwent a general remodelling in 2001 and sits on 0.8 acres of land.
“We have had inquiries from groups over the years, and now this opens it up for everyone to have an opportunity to have a look,” said MHCBE secretary treasurer Greg MacPherson.
“We’ll wait to see what happens, but we’re very excited about the level of interest.”
The board’s lease with CAPE ended in 2019 when that group moved to a new facility adjacent to a modernized Medicine Hat High School.
At that point the board applied to Alberta Education to dispose of the facility it considered surplus, and permission was granted in January.
The official process requires the property to be listed for at least 10 days.
News staff who visited the site for a picture on Thursday were met by realtors in the middle of a showing one day after it went onto the MLS listing site.
“It’s a solid building, and it’s configured to be a school, with classrooms and a gym,” said MacPherson.
Offers are subject to school board approval, but there are currently no caveats on potential future use.
The structure was the original St. Louis School in the Flats, but a Catholic board moved operations over to a public board facility on nearby Fourth Street (Montreal Street School) in the early 2000s.
The sale is the third of a central school facility in Medicine Hat over the past 10 years.
At that point, the public school board opened up the process of disposing the former Earl Kitchener school to a proposal process for community groups. However, without any qualified offers, it was eventually sold to a private buyer who converted in into a home.
Now-closed Riverside School is also subject to a conditional sales offer with Covenant Health toward building a care facility.
The future is still being determined for the site of the former Central Park School. That facility on the Southeast Hill was leased to the province-wide francophone school board and operated as École les Cypres until a new facility opened in the community of Saamis last fall. The original building was demolished over the winter.
Officials with the Medicine Hat Public School Division tell the News a decision on what to do with the site will be determined once it is officially handed back later this year.
