The former Sacred Heart School in Sarnia has been sold.
The St. Clair Catholic District School Board said the Lecaron Avenue site was listed for $1.8 million and attracted five offers.
The elementary school officially closed its doors in May ahead of students moving to the new Sacred Heart school on Hogan Drive at the start of the school year.
Associate Director of Corporate Services Amy Park said the property was sold to Gold Leaf Properties, a family run company just outside of Arkona, for $2.205 million.
"On behalf of the board, just very pleased with the outcome," said Park. "We are committed to using our limited resources transparently."
She said no decisions have been made at this time for the use of the funds from the sale.
"These particular funds aren't ones that we strictly rely on because we didn't know the actual amount of funds that we would receive from the sale," said Park. "So at this point we're just putting it into the capital planning process to try to make some decisions moving forward."
Gold Leaf Properties Development Coordinator Cindy Read said they plan to develop townhomes for seniors at the site.
"We do already have quite a few developments of this type in the surrounding area," said Read. "The one that would be closest to Sarnia, would be our one in Petrolia on Valentina Street. (At) Valentina Estates, there's 50 townhomes. They're luxury townhomes for 55 (year olds) and 55 plus."
Read said they've had lots of interest from Sarnia over the years, so they've been keeping an eye out for the right property and were thrilled when this one became available.
"It was nestled away in a nice established neighbourhood. Nice and close for walking to all sorts of amenities that are there. So, we thought that it would be a really good fit for seniors," Read said.
The homes will be single storey units, with no steps or stairs.
Read said they're currently unsure how many units the development will include, and it's too early for a construction timeline.
"We did just purchase it, so we still have to go through the development process, the rezoning and everything else. It can be a little bit of a lengthy process. So, it's really, really, hard to put any timelines on it right now. But, it will be at least a couple years," Read said.
Gold Leaf Properties recently completed a development in Forest and are currently working on one in Ailsa Craig.
With files from Melanie Irwin
