Former Mount Vernon Academy property sells for $1.6 million

By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter

MOUNT VERNON — Sixteen parcels belonging to the now-closed Mount Vernon Academy sold at auction on Wednesday, bringing in nearly $1.6 million.

The auction started at 4 p.m.; by 5 p.m., the 16 parcels were on hold as independent parcels with bids totaling just over $1.4 million. When no bidder was interested in purchasing all 16 parcels for $1.45 million, the negotiations began. For the next 1.5 hours, buyers conferred and offered counter bids on various parcels singly and in combination. The bidding ended at 6:30 with six buyers paying $1,595,000 for the 16 parcels:

•Issac White of Aabic Roofing: $580,000

Parcel 1: McKenzie Road, wooded building lot

Parcels 2, 3, 5, 6: 112 acres on McKenzie and Wooster roads

Parcel 9: 525 Wooster Road, campground and gymnasium

Parcel 12: 525 Wooster Road, administration building and boys dormitory

Parcel 13: 525 Wooster Road, 2-acre lot with building

•Dave Mills of Tracy & Mills Surveyors

Parcel 4: $220,000, 85 acres on McKenzie Road

Parcel 14: $80,000, 527 Wooster Road, residential home

•Bill Higgs of Canyon Construction

Parcel 7: $70,000, 645 Wooster Road, 2.5-acre commercial site

•Mark Ramser of Ohio Cumberland Gas

Parcel 8: $100,000, 27 acres on Perimeter Drive

Parcel 10: $360,000, strip commercial center on Wooster Road

Parcel 16: $20,000, tennis courts on Wooster Road

•Dennis Bates of ProFitness USA

Parcel 11: $90,000, 525 Wooster Road, girls dormitory and cafeteria

•Stan Lampley

Parcel 15: $75,000, 537 Wooster Road, residential home

The Mount Vernon Academy Board of Trustees and the Ohio Conference Executive Committee voted to accept the bids in a meeting following the close of the auction.

“The money will be used to reduce the debt owed by the former Mount Vernon Academy and to further Adventist Christian Education within the Ohio Conference. We are developing a new scholarship plan, ideally making it possible for many Adventist youth to receive the education they need and want,” said Ohio Conference president Ron Halvorsen Jr.

According to Heidi Shoemaker, communications director for the Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the remaining academy equipment and contents will be sold at a separate auction in approximately six to eight weeks.

When asked what his plans are for the cafeteria and girls dormitory, Bates replied, “It’s a mystery. I was originally interested in the strip center.” Bates attended high school at the academy, graduating in 1983.

Under the terms of sale, the Knox County Fair Board has the right to use both campgrounds during the 2016 Knox County Fair. Tenants rights are granted until harvest to a farmer who has crops planted on the McKenzie/Wooster road acreage.