GLENDALE : 2-Year College to Sell Its Montrose Campus

Rather than pay for a long list of expensive repairs, Glendale Community College has put its satellite campus in Montrose up for sale with an asking price of $2.8 million, college officials said Wednesday.

The Montrose campus, where adult, parent and nursing education and other programs have been run since the mid-1980s, is actually an aging elementary school that was one of two properties the college acquired when it broke away from the Glendale Unified School District in 1982.

College officials said that the site at 2361 Florencita Ave. was always considered a temporary facility and that now that the main campus is growing, they are ready to shut it down.

“In my view, it’s been a useless white elephant ever since we got it,” said Robert K. Holmes, president of the college board of trustees, of which he has been a member for 12 years.

“The buildings are in sad shape, and since it’s an elementary school it’s useless for college purposes. For instance, all the classrooms are huge but the sinks and water fountains are 18 inches off the ground,” Holmes said.

The college board voted unanimously last week to put the property on the market and to hire Prudential Stevens Commercial Real Estate of Glendale to handle the sale. Under law, the college board must sell the property to the highest bidder who meets certain state-mandated criteria. Bids must be submitted by October and the board will open them at a public hearing later this year, officials said.

Bill Taylor, the college’s director of business services, said the Montrose campus, which was built around 1950, has faulty plumbing and air conditioning and is in need of constant roofing repairs. He said the college board deemed the site “surplus property” in 1988 and has been exploring its options ever since.

“We’ve looked at options such as a long-term land lease to private users and joint ventures with developers. But with the economy the way it’s been it was determined that selling is the best option,” Taylor said.

Many of the programs once operated at the Montrose facility have already been moved, or are in the process of moving, to the college’s adult education campus at 1122 E. Garfield Ave., which opened in 1990.

While the college’s long-term master plan includes a new building on the main campus specially designed and dedicated to nursing education, that program remains rooted at the Montrose campus, and officials said they are looking for a temporary location. Due to funding constraints, it is not known how soon the nursing building will be built, officials said.

But Holmes said state law restricts the college to using proceeds from the sale of the Montrose campus for capital projects, such as construction of new buildings or refurbishing existing ones.

College officials said they expect the land, located in a residential neighborhood, will appeal to developers interested in building multifamily or single-family homes.