The city Redevelopment Authority has purchased the tract in Fifth Ward where the Garfield Elementary School once stood, so housing can be built there.

“It’s a significant property for the city,” said Mayor Matt Pacifico, a member of the authority, at the recent meeting where the purchase was approved. It’s “a great property,” he added.

Occupying about two-thirds of the 2000 block of 14th Avenue — at 250 feet wide and 120 feet deep, from the avenue to the alley in back — the site is big enough for perhaps 15 townhomes or five detached dwellings, Pacifico estimated.

The authority purchased it from Laura Jane McGowan of Lancaster County for $20,000.

McGowan owned the property for 10 years or more, according to authority member Ron Beatty.

The school was demolished about 15 years ago, according to online information.

McGowan had listed the tract with realtors in an unsuccessful attempt to sell it, Beatty said.

Prior to the demolition of the school, the building served as a storage site for materials collected by Russo Demolition & Salvage, Beatty said.

The site is relatively flat, although there is a stone retaining wall along the left-most stretch of the avenue, dating from the property’s time as the site of a functioning school.

The property will require additional utility infrastructure to accommodate housing.

Beatty noticed the tract about half a year ago while working in the neighborhood with his carpet cleaning business.

Authority consultant ARROW Land Solutions contacted McGowan and helped negotiate the sale, according to Beatty.

Beatty would prefer to see a couple of “high-end” homes constructed there.

It will make sense to get input on developing the tract from the prospective executive director of the authority, after one is hired, said community development Director Diana White.

The city has been seeking an executive director for the authority for more than a month.

At the same meeting, the authority accepted a proposal from Freedom Storage Rentals of East Freedom to rehabilitate a house on the 300 block of Wopsononock Avenue.

Freedom’s proposal was one of three the authority received in response to a request for proposals.

One was “horrible,” said city housing program manager Jim Trexler.

One of the others included an offer to pay the authority $5,510 for the property, while predicting that the renovation would cost $57,000, Trexler said.

Freedom’s payment offer was $25,000, coupled with an $81,000 cost estimate for the renovation, Trexler said.

The house will need a new kitchen and furnace, he said.

Freedom estimates the work will take six months, according to Trexler.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.