For sale: 153 acres of surplus land near CMS campuses

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, one of the region’s biggest owners and buyers of real estate, will jump into the seller’s role next month when it offers 18 parcels of unused land totaling almost 153 acres.

The surplus land ranges from almost 39 open acres near the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport to a tiny parcel next to Piedmont Middle School that’s leased to a pizza restaurant.

Most of the property is on the edges of school campuses or CMS office buildings, though there’s a 6-acre strip along Independence Boulevard that has staff and board members stumped. No one is sure how the school district came to own a strip of woods behind the businesses just past Ovens Auditorium, with no CMS facilities nearby.

While CMS routinely sells surplus furniture and other supplies, getting rid of excess land is new. Peggy Hey, who’s in charge of facility management, told the school board Tuesday that the plots identified are of no use to the schools or to other government bodies.

The parcels will go on the market after the school board officially declares them surplus in October. Proceeds from the sales will go toward capital needs such as renovations, construction or land for new schools.

It’s not clear how much the sale might bring in. Hey said she’ll have the sites appraised if buyers express interest.

Board member Eric Davis said he hopes the surplus land sale shows county officials, who provide money for school construction and renovation, that the district is managing money wisely.

But member Ericka Ellis-Stewart said the sale could raise questions: “Have we overpurchased land and spent money that we really didn’t need to in the past?”

Hey said the district sometimes buys a whole parcel that a seller is offering in an area where new schools are needed. Land that isn’t useful for the school, parking or playgrounds can later be carved off as surplus, she said.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 2:23 PM with the headline "For sale: 153 acres of surplus land near CMS campuses."