Austintown Middle School property back on the market

AUSTINTOWN — If you want 15 acres of prime commercial real estate along busy Mahoning Avenue near big retail draws such as Home Depot and Wal Mart, then the Austintown School District can fix you up.

The school board, at its meeting Thursday, voted to let Superintendent Doug Heuer start the process of getting the old Austintown Middle School property back on the market after a deal with local developers Ben Post and Martin Solomon fell through.

The developers, under the company name This Land Is My Land Ltd., agreed to buy the property from the school district for $2.6 million in September 2005, and the school district had given them until August to close on it. The district was notified Sept. 7 that the company wanted out of the deal.

Board President Michael Creatore, who read a strongly worded statement expressing the board’s frustration and disappointment over the collapse of the deal, said the company wants a $260,000 deposit it paid in 2005 returned. Creatore said the district has no intention of returning it.

For more, see Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com