St. Andrew’s Elementary in downtown Victoria has been listed for sale as part of a $20-million plan by the Roman Catholic Diocese to upgrade and consolidate its schools.
The diocese confirmed Monday that the property has been listed with CB Richard Ellis Ltd. for $11.9 million.
“We’re just kind of exploring options at this point and, hopefully, some offers,” Leah MacKenzie, the diocese’s financial officer, said in an interview. “But it’s not being actively marketed with a ‘for sale’ sign or anything like that.”
MacKenzie expressed hope that the 84,873squarefeet property on Pandora Avenue will garner considerable attention from potential buyers.
“It’s a fairly large tract in an improving area of town, and there’s not too many large sites really available in Victoria,” she said. “So we’re hoping it has some interest and, hopefully, some interesting potential to improve the community as well.”
The diocese announced two years ago that it planned to sell or lease St. Andrew’s, and use the proceeds to pay for upgrades to St. Joseph’s and St. Patrick’s elementary schools and St. Andrew’s Regional High School.
MacKenzie said the plan hinges on selling St. Andrew’s elementary and using the proceeds as a down payment on the project.
“This really is one of the key pieces that needs to be in place,” she said.
“Because it’s such a huge capital investment that’s not funded at all by any public money, we are having to put about half of it down in cash ourselves.”
The diocese intends to negotiate a deal that will allow it to keep St. Andrew’s open until the other schools are ready, she said.
“We are hoping that there’s going to be quite a bit of flexibility to allow us time to prepare St. Joseph’s and St. Patrick’s with all the work that needs to be done there,” MacKenzie said.
“That would be the ideal situation – that we find somebody and then we could lease [St. Andrew’s] back for several years while we get the other schools ready.”
Bishop Richard Gagnon announced the plan in April 2010, saying the aging schools require seismic and other upgrades. The plan calls for St. Joseph’s School to double its capacity to 400 students.
“We want to allow for two strong, viable, sustainable elementary schools in the city, one on the east side of the city and one on the west side of the city, with a centrally located high school,” Gagnon said at the time.
St. Joseph’s is located at 757 W. Burnside Rd., while St. Patrick’s is at 2368 Trent St., near Royal Jubilee Hospital.
Island Catholic Schools superintendent Joseph Colistro states in a letter to parents on the St. Andrew’s elementary website that the diocese hopes to have the school upgrades completed in 2014.
lkines@timescolonist.com