Once Upon A Time

Nothing Normal about Normal School

A historic old school in London seeks a buyer and what is interesting is that the exterior has already been refurbished, but no one has purchased this significant building in London's Wortley Village neighbourhood.
If you have never driven past this school, and if you want to see a picture of it, be sure to check out the London Free Press website. http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/04/01/19579121.html
I could see this building be transformed into an office building for many uses -- lawyers, accountants, etc. Certainly some interior improvements would also be required. Now is the time for a business in London to come forward and purchase it as it will likely sell well below its perceived market value 
Here is the Chip Martin story from The Free Press:

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Historic building in London has uncertain future HERITAGE PRESERVATION: Once Ontario’s third-oldest teachers’ college, the London Normal School building is expected to be declared surplus by the province. Taxpayers spent $5 million to fix up the 112-year-old south London building’s exterior. Finding a fix for a historic site loved by the community, but with no obvious use, may be tougher.
By CHIP MARTIN, The London Free Press
April 2, 2012 8:03am
　
LONDON -- Location, location, location are the three words that make for real estate success.
Three others -- old, heritage, public, not so much.
One of London's landmark structures, the 112-year-old London Normal School at Elmwood Ave. and Wortley Rd. in Old South, is about to be declared surplus, leaving its fate up in the air.
The provincial government, after spending $5 million to repair the building's crumbling exterior, now wants to unload the place where teachers learned how to teach.
"It's a spectacular heritage property," says commercial Realtor Peter Whatmore of CB Richard Ellis.
But because of things like its age, heritage designation and other issues, the old, towered school will have a limited appeal in the market.
"You have to cast the net fairly broadly," Whatmore concedes. A private school or other use might be possible, he suggested.
Private interests will have to wait to get a crack at the property, however.
Before it goes on the open market, it must be offered first to other levels of government, according to provincial protocols.
City hall, at the urging of Old South residents, wants to buy some time to consider uses for it and to see if community partners might be interested in coming on-board.
Residents are determined the green space around the school -- rare, in that part of the city -- be preserved as parkland, said George Sinclair, a director of the Old South Community Organization. The building also needs some public use, he said.
Sitting vacant comes with risks, he said, noting the lessons learned from the historic Talbot Block of downtown commercial buildings, which began to fall apart before they were finally cleared, and Locust Mount, a historic Talbot St. home that burned down.
"The worst-case scenario is the building isn't used," he said. "Empty heritage buildings in this city, many of them, have a bad fate.
"This could be contributing to our community, its vitality, its well-being," Sinclair said, if a public use can be found. "There is work to be done, there is a community to revitalize and opportunities for the city to find a sympathetic, creative user."
Sinclair worries that heritage designations and easements on the property are written on paper and not etched in stone.
Shmuel Farhi, who has a large inventory of properties in London and beyond, is unimpressed with the provincial government's behaviour.
Farhi tangled with Queen's Park over the historic Elgin County courthouse in St. Thomas he acquired, fixed up and then sold back to the province. After that, the province committed $249 million to renovate it, he said.
"I am very concerned about the future of this heritage building, given the province's track record, the potential cost to renovate the rest of it and the limited uses it will have without significant internal reconstruction," he said.
"I am very distressed that at the same time as the provincial government was building record deficits, they spent $6 million to restore the tower alone at the Normal School. And now it is 'surplus?,' " Farhi said.
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CHRONOLOGY

1900: Feb. 1, Western Ontario Normal School opens, the third in Ontario after Toronto and Ottawa. It was a college for teachers.
1958: London Teachers' College becomes affiliated with the University of Western Ontario, as a junior high school; 1963: Becomes the home of the former London board of education; 1985: Becomes home of the London and Middlesex County Roman Catholic separate school board and is renamed the Monsignor Feeney Centre.
1985: The city places a heritage designation on the entire property, especially the building interior and exterior and the Ontario Heritage Trust applies a Heritage Conservation Easement on the entire site.
2004: The building becomes vacant when the Catholic board relocates its headquarters to Wellington Rd., beside Regina Mundi College.
2007: The Ontario government decides to restore the building's crumbling exterior, a job estimated at $4 million that rose to $5 million.
Early 2011: The London branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario bestows an award for the restoration job.
Feb. 2012: A public meeting in South London urges the city to take steps to preserve the parkland and building. A survey of residents shows they don't want to choose between the building and the green space.
March 26, 2012: City council's finance and administrative services committee recommends council on April 10 seek at least half a year's time from the government to consider uses for the old school and partnerships to explore some public use.
April 10: Council to consider asking for a delay in disposition to come up with a plan for use.
April 19: Infrastructure Ontario, owner of the site, expected to declare it surplus, offering it first to governments and public institutions before putting it on the open market. Under its rules, the city would have 30 days to respond if it's interested.