Although officials from the Petal School District have been working for months to transform the former McDonald’s building on East Central Avenue into a center for after-school activities, those plans may soon take a detour now that officials are open to selling the building.
School district superintendent Matt Dillon said officials have a strategic plan for capital improvement projects across the district particularly plans for facilities throughout the five schools that make up the district. Because of spacing issues – the district enrolls approximately 4,200 students across those campuses – officials began to look at all other options in that regard.
“Of course, we have some spacing issues with some of our schools where we’re out of space because of the student population,” Dillon said. “Of late, we’ve had a couple of people approach us about possibly buying that building, although it really has not actively been for sale.
“We’re thinking about how this could possibly offset some other costs; for example, our central office is having some major flooring issues, and that’s going to be pretty substantial as far as correcting those. So we started just to think, and right now we’re just looking at all of our options, and where those options would be to possibly auction that building off, to again apply that money to offset some costs of other projects, such as central office renovations and others.”
However, if school district officials move forward with the auction and are uncomfortable with any prices offered, the district will maintain ownership of the building with other ideas of utilizing the space.
For the past several months, officials have been working diligently to transform the former restaurant building – which has sat vacant since Mcdonald’s moved to its current Evelyn Gandy Parkway location – into a space for the aforementioned activities. Phase I is currently underway, in which the roof of the building was renovated and a new HVAC system installed.
That was followed by interior renovation, along with painting and signage.
The building was donated to the school district by its former owner, Dr. David McKellar. McKellar had previously offered to donate the building to the City of Petal, but that proposal was denied by the Petal Board of Aldermen in November 2019, when board members – along with former Mayor Hal Marx – suggested the city would have no use for the building.
“I know it’s got some issues, perhaps, where it needs to be renovated or repaired,” Marx said at a board meeting. “I’d just hate for the city to have to take on the expense when we don’t have any use for it.
“I’d rather see it stay a commercial property, and eventually have a business in it that generates tax revenue.”
About a month after the city turned down the offer, officials from the Petal School District stepped in to take ownership of the building. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down initial work on the building, but the school district was able to get back on track soon afterwards.
“Obviously, the space is located right by the central office, which was very appealing when we inherited that property,” Dillon said. “However, the design of that building is not perfect to the design of how we could utilize other spaces.
“So we’re really just exploring all of our options now to see what makes the most since for our district going forward.”
If the building were indeed to be sold, some of the ideas for that space would be applied to some of the district’s current buildings.
“After school and over the summer is how we intended to use that building,” Dillon said. “So we could still take some of those ideas of what we were going to do – to offer some camps and other things – but just in a different location at one of our existing schools, after hours.”
In the meantime, district officials have ceased all renovations on the inside of the former McDonald’s building.
“I think we really have a good blank slate, if we were to sell it for someone to come in and put their final touches on it,” Dillon said. “But again, we’re just exploring all options, and if we’re not comfortable with the price someone might offer us, then we’ll continue to hold onto it.
“At that point, we would seek to continue renovations. But of late, we’ve had a couple of people approach us, so we’re interested in exploring that right now to offset some other costs throughout the district.”
