School Board approves “contingency contract” on K&L Arena; total cost of project could be $3 million

QUINCY — Calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” Quincy School Board member Richard McNay laid out the rationale for the Quincy Public School District to purchase K&L Arena at Wednesday night’s board meeting.

“It’s 55,000 square foot, so at $2 million… it comes out to (roughly) $40 per square foot,” McNay said. “If we tried to build to the size we need, the cost would be around $175 per square foot.”

The board approved to move forward on a contingency contract, pending final inspection of the building and an environmental review of the site. A final contract is expected to come before the School Board in April.

So what began as a conversation to move the district’s transportation facilities from 20th and Hampshire to Flinn Stadium, turned to buying the existing 18-year-old structure sitting on about 5 acres of land at 1600 N. 43rd from owners Greg and Debbie Shierling. K&L Arena never re-opened following the 2020 Pandemic.

Mays Realtors, the broker for the property, approached the school district in December about possibly buying the property, which had been on the market since 2015. QPS began getting serious about moving the transportation facility after louder public complaints regarding excessive noise and a potential Illinois EPA investigation into the matter following an official complaint filed with the state agency.

McNay said the district made an offer of $1.8 million for the property on Friday. Another party had offered $2 million and The Shierling’s gave the district the chance to match it, which it did.

One drawback of a public entity such as QPS buying the property instead of a private developer is that Adams County will lose out in property tax revenue on land and a building that size, of which the school district would receive more than half of. Property taxes on the site last year were around $30,000.

McNay estimated it would cost up to $1 million to make the needed renovations which would include overhead doors, wash bays and a fuel depot. The existing fuel depot at Flinn Stadium is in need of repairs and would no longer be used as the entire 85 bus fleet would be consolidated at K&L.

QPS has $1.6 million to put toward the project it has from selling its old school buildings and some of the contents within them. That also includes rebates and cash left over the school construction projects paid for by the 2014 bonding referendum. Chief of Business Operations Ryan Whicker said the remaining needed funding would come from the transportation and operations funds.

McNay said the closing date for the sale is June 30 and it should take about a year to finish the project.

The move also opens up the possibility to move the district’s maintenance operations to North 43rd as well or to 20th and Hampshire once it is vacated. McNay said the current bus barn recently had a new roof installed and the building is in excellent shape. The district could then sell the property at 7th and Jersey, where the maintenance headquarters is currently located.