Future of shuttered school building unclear after city withdraws offer to buy it

Plans to turn the former John Marshall school building into a hub for various services for the Far Eastside have died after the city of Indianapolis backed out of purchasing the property from Indianapolis Public Schools.

The city planned to purchase the school from IPS for $725,000 and work with a group known as the John Marshall Collaborative to help turn the roughly 340,000-square-foot campus into a hub of economic, social, and health services. The city’s ownership was meant to be short-term until the project was fully operational and could be owned by the collaborative or another community entity, the Department of Metropolitan Development said in a statement.

But the city and development team no longer wish to move forward with the “Opportunity Hub” project, citing a need for over $18 million in deferred maintenance costs that the department said would impede successful development. The city’s withdrawal leaves an uncertain future for the large facility.

“The City had offered to purchase the property on the condition that a financially feasible plan for the day-to-day operations of the facility could be finalized,” the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development said in a statement. “Despite the best efforts of the John Marshall Collaborative, the City and various partners to finalize that operating plan, the extensive deferred maintenance at the facility ultimately made it unfeasible to guarantee financially sustainable operations.”

The sale of the building was projected to save the district about $400,000 in annual operations and maintenance costs.

Following the city’s decision, the school board voted Wednesday to rescind the offer of sale. The district will now accept bids on the property.

“We really just want to cast a wide net and see what interest is out there,” Zach Mulholland, executive director of operation strategy, said after the meeting Wednesday.

The John Marshall building opened in 1968 as a high school. It closed in 2018 as a middle school amid academic and facility challenges.

The district offered the building up for sale to charter schools and higher educational institutions for $1 in 2019, in accordance with state law. No parties expressed interest.

This article was written by Chalkbeat Indiana reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey.