The closing date for the $10 million sale of the former Big Park Community School was extended for a second time to Tuesday, Sept. 8, because of a “technical issue,” buyer Basil Maher said on Monday, Aug. 17, the original extended closing date.
Maher said he does not want to share what the issue is before he and his wife, Mimi, go to close on the property.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that the sale will go through,” he said on Aug. 17. “Sometimes, you can’t go against knowledgeable peoples’ advice.”
The original closing date was set at the end of July after a months-long review period of the contract and property.
Maher said it is still their intention to retain as much of the building as it is currently, and plans to offer leases to the people and organizations currently using it, such as Community Library Sedona’s Village of Oak Creek branch, Project Fill The Need food pantry and the House Church that meets there.
Additionally, the Mahers plan to convert many of the classrooms to small apartments and create a community center there using parts of the gymnasium and library with financial support from Yavapai County.
While the county hasn’t voted on a community center at the Big Park property specifically, it has spoken about similar projects.
Yavapai County Supervisor Nikki Check [D-District 3] said the county, in its Rural Services Master Study conducted last year, had identified the Village of Oak Creek as a “community in need” of more resources, services and amenities that a community center could help provide.
She brought the idea of the Big Park property serving that purpose to the board of supervisors in January.
Without a signed purchasing contract, the Mahers have not entered into any formal negotiations with the county about beginning to provide services or support for the property.
Check said the other supervisors seemed open to the idea of assisting in some way to provide those services, although the exact scope of what that means is still up in the air as the contract has yet to be signed and further discussions on the board of supervisors haven’t taken place.
Without the county’s support for that, the Mahers said they may need to adjust their plans for at least the gymnasium.
“This is not a charitable event,” Maher said. “But it’s not to squeeze every dollar out of it.”
