Superintendent plans to bring purchase agreement before the school board May 22

By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — Lake Orion Community Schools could be selling the district’s Administration Building if a purchase agreement with a developer is approved by the school board.
Superintendent Ben Kirby said during a school board work session on May 8 that he plans to bring a purchase agreement before board of education members for approval during their next meeting.
While plans may change before the meeting, approving the agreement is a step in allowing West Construction, the construction company that plans to redevelop the Ehman Center, 55 W. Elizabeth St., to purchase LOCS’s Administration Building located at 315 N. Lapeer St.
This purchase agreement comes as district administration is working to decide on purchasing the Orion Center from Orion Township government. The township’s board of trustees previously voted 5-0 to authorize Supervisor Chris Barnett to work with the township attorney to negotiate a potential purchase agreement with LOCS administration for the Orion Center.
Orion Township officials plan on moving all of the services and groups in the Orion Center – including the Parks and Recreation Department, senior services – to the Great Lakes Athletic Club, which the township purchased as a community center in December.
“We’re just in a situation where it’s not going to come around very often that someone can pay you fair market value or above for this particular facility, and have the opportunity at the Orion Center,” Kirby said. “If we don’t move forward with this space, we have to find some place for all of the displaced people to go. And if we do move forward with selling this property without a plan to have a place to go, we’re right back at the CERC site trying to figure out where to put people.”
Kirby said according to the agreement regarding the N. Lapeer Street building, West Construction would get access to the building, and LOCS administration would be required to leave by Dec. 1, 2025. The Ehman Center and LOCS’s Administration Building are both accessible from N. Lapeer Street.
The Ehman Center building, formerly Lake Orion High School when it was built in 1927, will be renovated into a residential building by West Construction. Plans also include a four story apartment building on the grounds next to the Ehman Center on the north side of the LOCS Administration Building.
The Lake Orion Village Council unanimously approved the Planned Unit Development contract with West Construction for the construction of West Village at 55 W. Elizabeth St., known as the Ehman Center, at its meeting on Dec. 11, 2023.
The school board’s next meeting is scheduled for May 22.