Buena Park : City to Make Offer for Old Sullivan School Site

City officials plan to buy the entire 8.5-acre site of the closed Sullivan School, turn part of it into a cultural arts center, and possibly utilize the rest as a commercial and residential area.

Monday night, the City Council directed the staff to make an offer to the Buena Park School District for the property, which the city now leases for $16,000 a year under an arrangement that ends June 30. Earlier this year, city officials said they could not afford to buy the entire site at an estimated cost of $3 million, and planned to buy only part of it. Officials would not say how much they plan to offer now.

If the city buys the property, most of the buildings would be razed, Acting City Manager Pat Brown said. The city would retain the auditorium and classrooms now used for community theater, according to Felise Acosta, community development manager. City officials then would contract with a developer to decide how best to use the rest of the land, most of which, about six acres, is zoned residential, Acosta said.

A child abuse prevention center and a girls club now on the site are scrambling to find new homes before their leases expire at the end of June. The Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center and the Girls Club of North Orange County are looking for donations of office space, trailers or money to help them relocate.

“We’re confident that the city will help us out, but we are also getting nervous because the time is drawing close,” said Gail Nugent-Wallace, director of the child abuse center at 7631 Melrose Ave. “We’d like to get this resolved so we’re not sitting out on the street somewhere.”