Glenside-Weldon School: For Rent

What’s going on with the Glenside-Weldon school property? Well, it’s been vacant since autumn, and the school board is looking for renters.

Not buyers.

The Abington School Board OK’d a motion June 7 to enter into a one-year “exclusive agency agreement” with Situs Properties Inc., out of Fort Washington, to find a renter for the building on Easton Road, which is across from the Weldon Fire Co.

The agreement begins June 8.

According to the motion, the school district is looking for a rate of $12 per square foot from a potential lessee for the 121,000-square-foot building. Saving you a trip to your adding machine, that’s about $1.45 million.

Abington School District Superintendent Amy Sichel added, “or a price that’s appropriate.” And she said the length of the lease would be negotiable.

According to the motion, the leasing commission would be 6 percent of all rent, paid on a monthly basis. The motion also included an expenditure of “up to $4,000” for marketing materials.

Students first vacated the school in 2001, when the district opened the freshly minted Copper Beech Elementary School down the road. Sichel called the Glenside-Weldon building a “swing school,” as it acted as a temporary home for students of Willow Hill, Overlook, Highland and Roslyn elementary schools while those schools were either being renovated or rebuilt. The building was also recently home to Springfield Township students while their school was undergoing renovations.

“We have shown the property to some people, but the board has decided—and we think it’s a very good idea—that we enter into an agency agreement with Situs Properties Inc. for them to show the building to appropriate lessees,” Sichel said.

“The building is not for sale,” Sichel said. “We would like to see Situs bring in a company that conforms with zoning, or conforms with what you believe should be changed in regard to that—which would then be presented to the township.”

Michael Cohen, president of Situs Properties, said in the hallway during the meeting that he has been to the site and said, “We want to find somebody that’s going to utilize the building with a minimal amount of renovations.” He added that the building will likely stick with an "educational use."

Sichel said she is delighted to have professional real estate agents and brokers deal with the property, rather than Abington School District staff.