Mosdos withdraws offer to purchase Millikin; district announces building is no longer for sale

The former Millikin School.

After years of efforts to negotiate the sale of the former Millikin Elementary School building to local private K–8 school Mosdos Ohr Hatorah, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, the City of Cleveland Heights and Mosdos jointly announced that Mosdos has withdrawn its purchase offer.

“Mosdos found after investigation that it is not able to secure necessary financing due to renovation costs,” said Alan Rapoport, attorney for Mosdos Ohr Hatorah.

“We spent many years working on this deal and are disappointed, but we certainly understand the situation. We wish Mosdos the very best,” said Nancy Peppler, CH-UH Board of Education president.

“However, while we wish the sale had gone through,” added Peppler, “we have also identified a district need for the Millikin space and we intend to start using it again as soon as possible to house our tradesmen and grounds crew. Since we won’t be renovating the space for classroom use, but simply converting the building for use for our trades, our costs will be minimal.”

Officials from the City of Cleveland Heights had also been hopeful that the sale would go through. “Our interest at the city was to support a viable educational entity going into the long vacant Millikin building,” said Mayor Dennis Wilcox. “The neighborhood surrounding Millikin was eager to see the building returned to its original use. This was just not possible.”

While the district is undergoing phase 1 of its Master Facilities Project, which includes the complete renovation of Heights High and the two middle schools, the tradesmen and grounds crew needs to relocate from the Wiley building. The Wiley campus is being modified to temporarily house Heights High students and staff during the two years the high school building is under construction. Once the high school is complete, the Wiley campus will house middle school students and staff during the construction of the middle schools.

The district will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 6 p.m., to discuss changes now planned for Millikin to accommodate the school district’s tradesmen and grounds crew. Representatives from Project Management Consultants, ThenDesign Achitects and district administration will present information at the meeting, and answer questions.

The meeting will take place at the Millikin School, 1700 Crest Road in Cleveland Heights.