arniejolt
05-04-2009, 04:42 PM
There's always a catch with this sort of thing...
Want an amazing deal? How about a sprawling, two-story farmhouse in Leesburg for one dollar?
The catch: The land underneath is not for sale, and the buyer will have to pay to have the house carted away.
When Loudoun Country Day School moves this summer to a new $32 million, 70-acre campus near Evergreen Mills Road, the eight-acre lot it is vacating will be turned into an assisted-living residence for 87 people, operated by the Blacksburg-based company H. H. Hunt.
In its application for a special-use permit for the site, the company agreed to investigate the history of the farmhouse and make it available to buyers interested in moving it. The $12 million assisted-living facility, a one-story building that conforms to modern safety and accessibility standards, will be built on the land where the farmhouse now stands.
Bo Cook, director of development at H. H. Hunt, said the company did extensive research to determine whether the 1880s structure had historic value. It is not on a historic registry and is not in the town's historic district, and no one of historic significance has been found to have owned it, he said.
"In a nutshell," he said, "it's just an old farmhouse."
The 2,500-plus-square-foot house has been altered by the school, which uses it for offices and an after-school program. Whoever buys and moves it will need to get permission from the town, the county and possibly the Virginia Department of Transportation, Cook said.
Still, he said, company officials hope someone will move it. After running two newspaper ads, the company received calls from about 10 interested buyers. Three offers were serious: a nonprofit organization, a medical facility and someone who wanted to convert it to short-term housing.
Cook and Randy Hollister, the school's headmaster, said that no one had come to them with strong feelings about the building, which was home to Hollister and his family for several years.
"Some neighbors are curious, but nobody was stepping forward and saying, 'Please save the house,' " Hollister said. "It's not in great shape. It needs an enormous amount of work."
But the house has sentimental value to the school, he said, adding that the school had looked into moving it to its new campus.
"It was exorbitantly expensive," he said. "In the hundreds of thousands. An old two-story house with a cellar and attic, it's not going to go under traffic lights or power lines or things of that nature."
Cook said the cost would vary depending on how far the house had to go and how many utility lines it had to cross. But just to move it a few feet down the road, an operation that would involve lifting it off its foundation and attaching it to a tractor-trailer, would cost a minimum of $25,000, he said.
"If I could I would wave a wand, I would love to have the house refurbished and move it," Hollister said. Instead, if the house is eventually slated for demolition, the school might do a photo essay of it and build a model or even a full-size replica, using new materials, he said.
From Washington Post:
http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/news/2009/apr/26/farmhouse-can-be-yours-1/
Want an amazing deal? How about a sprawling, two-story farmhouse in Leesburg for one dollar?
The catch: The land underneath is not for sale, and the buyer will have to pay to have the house carted away.
When Loudoun Country Day School moves this summer to a new $32 million, 70-acre campus near Evergreen Mills Road, the eight-acre lot it is vacating will be turned into an assisted-living residence for 87 people, operated by the Blacksburg-based company H. H. Hunt.
In its application for a special-use permit for the site, the company agreed to investigate the history of the farmhouse and make it available to buyers interested in moving it. The $12 million assisted-living facility, a one-story building that conforms to modern safety and accessibility standards, will be built on the land where the farmhouse now stands.
Bo Cook, director of development at H. H. Hunt, said the company did extensive research to determine whether the 1880s structure had historic value. It is not on a historic registry and is not in the town's historic district, and no one of historic significance has been found to have owned it, he said.
"In a nutshell," he said, "it's just an old farmhouse."
The 2,500-plus-square-foot house has been altered by the school, which uses it for offices and an after-school program. Whoever buys and moves it will need to get permission from the town, the county and possibly the Virginia Department of Transportation, Cook said.
Still, he said, company officials hope someone will move it. After running two newspaper ads, the company received calls from about 10 interested buyers. Three offers were serious: a nonprofit organization, a medical facility and someone who wanted to convert it to short-term housing.
Cook and Randy Hollister, the school's headmaster, said that no one had come to them with strong feelings about the building, which was home to Hollister and his family for several years.
"Some neighbors are curious, but nobody was stepping forward and saying, 'Please save the house,' " Hollister said. "It's not in great shape. It needs an enormous amount of work."
But the house has sentimental value to the school, he said, adding that the school had looked into moving it to its new campus.
"It was exorbitantly expensive," he said. "In the hundreds of thousands. An old two-story house with a cellar and attic, it's not going to go under traffic lights or power lines or things of that nature."
Cook said the cost would vary depending on how far the house had to go and how many utility lines it had to cross. But just to move it a few feet down the road, an operation that would involve lifting it off its foundation and attaching it to a tractor-trailer, would cost a minimum of $25,000, he said.
"If I could I would wave a wand, I would love to have the house refurbished and move it," Hollister said. Instead, if the house is eventually slated for demolition, the school might do a photo essay of it and build a model or even a full-size replica, using new materials, he said.
From Washington Post:
http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/news/2009/apr/26/farmhouse-can-be-yours-1/
