MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tuesday, the Memphis-Shelby County School Board approved a purchase agreement for the nearly 36-acre property being considered as the site of a new high school in Cordova.
Located just north of Shelby Farms on Herbert Road near Fischer Steel Road off N. Germantown Parkway, it is currently the front-runner for the site of the new school.
“There’s pretty limited areas of land that are large enough for a high school and proximity to the area that we need a high school,” said Amber Huett-Garcia, the District 8 School Board Representative. “That one came up as the best option.”
Crews Investment Holdings LLC has agreed to sell the 35.79 acres to MSCS for just over $3.5 million.
“This is actually below what they were asking for the land,” Huett-Garcia said. “(We also considered) appraised vs. market value, which are not always the same. But for the amount of land that we’re getting, that is a fair price for the district.”
The price averages out to about $100,000 per acre. Here’s how that compares to the price of real estate elsewhere in that area:
- 3100 N. Germantown Road: $339,578 per acre ($2.9 million total)
- 475 N. Germantown Parkway: $261,359 per acre ($1,630,886 total)
- 0 Raleigh Lagrange Road: $50,736 per acre
- Macon Road and Country Village Drive: $333,079 per acre ($3,354,000 total)
The property is only accessible by Fischer Steel Road and Moriarty Road. If the new school is built there, area businesses owners hope the project means wider roads, and more of them.
“They could be widened, Moriarty could be widened very easily,” said George Merrill, owner of Analog Emporium, one of the the businesses also on Fischer Steel Road. “(They could also) cut through to Mullins Station easy enough.”
Merrill, who has operated his business in that part of Cordova for 20 years and is also one of the owners of the area’s business condos, says he would welcome the new school and the area is already in the midst of several projects filling out that corner of Cordova.
“Some small businesses, some apartments, maybe some duplexes,” Merrill said.
The next step for MSCS is to conduct a feasibility study of the property.
“We need to make sure the infrastructure can support our parents and students,” Huett-Garcia said.
Huett-Garcia said MSCS hopes to start the feasibility study within the next month. She says the district has till the end of the year to complete it.