The Lewiston School Committee voted unanimously Monday night to purchase 287 Main Street, seen Monday, at the corner of Main and Sabattus streets in Lewiston. The three-story building is owned by Central Maine Healthcare. At left is a dome on the Kora Temple. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — The Lewiston School Committee voted unanimously Monday night to move forward with purchasing the three-story 287 Main Street from Central Maine Healthcare.

The vacant building has been listed for sale in as-is condition since January for $1.25 million.

“We’re exploring 287 Main Street as a potential space to grow our capacity, essentially,” Superintendent Jake Langlais said Monday.

“(The building) became available and the seller reached out to see if we were interested, because the department has been looking for a new office space for the Dingley Building for a while,” Lewiston Public Schools Committee Chairwoman Megan Parks said.

Langlais announced the purchase price as $1 million during Monday’s meeting. The property was listed for $1.25 million earlier this year.

“The listing price that you have on our website is correct,” Katie Breggia of Dunham Group said Monday. “Anything about the transaction itself, I can’t talk about.”

Dunham Group is the Portland-based real estate agency handling the sale.

“We have come to an agreement on the price, but we’ve not taken that last step. Until we do, I can’t really dive into a ton of detail,” Langlais said. “We really have to close (the deal), we have to have approval to move forward with the purchase. But again, it’s in that million dollar range,” he noted.

“We haven’t gotten an update in a while because we’ve been focusing on the budget,” Parks said ahead of the meeting. “I know they were still negotiating (the price) based on the assessment of the building, the evaluation and all of that.”

The purchase is set to be financed from sources separate from the district’s budget, which was approved last week.

“I anticipate people to have questions about how this is being funded. We’ll just do our best to explain all the pieces of how the funding comes together through premium from prior projects that are either completed or had interest or what they call premium develop on it,” Langlais said.

The Lewiston School Committee voted unanimously Monday night to purchase 287 Main Street, seen Monday at the corner of Sabattus and Main streets in Lewiston. It is owned by Central Maine Healthcare. At right is the Kora Temple. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“Sometimes there’s confusion between interest and premium,” he said. “Interest is what we pay on a bond to get it, kind of like a mortgage. Premium is what the money gains as it sits there.”

“It’s basically coming from capital funds that are either unspent on other projects where the cost came in a little bit under the estimate,” City Councilor Scott Harriman said. “There were some unspent funds.”

Harriman said dividends from the Lewiston High School’s expansion project will finance the purchase. “There was some money that didn’t get spent. Then the way the bond market worked in those years, it provided a bunch of dividends, so it actually made some money for the school,” he added.

“The money is all coming from being reassigned for overages from LCIP (Lewiston Capital Improvement Program) projects,” Parks said. “I think it was the LHS expansion, and maybe some leftover funds from the middle school. Those are the only funds that have been allocated for this.”

The future of the historic Dingley Building or plans for the potential new building remain unclear.

“There aren’t really definite plans at this point, but there have been some ideas that have been floated, like expanding,” Harriman said. “With the school budget this year, there’s been a push to try to get some of the outplaced special education students back into the local school system, both to save money and for a better experience for them. The new building could offer some space to do that.”

According to Harriman, Langlais has also talked about day care facilities for the district’s employees. “A big issue that they’ve been running into with hiring is the lack of day care opportunities,” he added.

The school administration building at 36 Oak St. was originally the Oak Street School and renamed the Dingley Building in 1899 to honor former U.S. Rep. Nelson Dingley. The two-story brick structure has been a teachers’ training school and an elementary school over the years. It has housed Lewiston School Department’s administration offices since 1975.

“There’s been a lot of issues (with the Dingley Building),” Parks said. “I know the roof just finally got finished recently, but that had been leaking for a long time. There had been offices on the downstairs that had moisture.”

“Everything in Dingley is as old as it looks,” Langlais said.

The Lewiston School Committee voted unanimously Monday night to purchase 287 Main Street, seen Monday, at the corner of Main and Sabattus streets in Lewiston. The three-story building is owned by Central Maine Healthcare. At right is the Kora Temple Shrine. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

It’s still going to be at least a couple of years before 287 Main Street is usable because they need to do some renovation and reconfiguration of some of the floors, Harriman said.

“The building has some water-related damage,” Langlais said. “It’s been unused for a few years. That’s complicating (the plans) as well. We would still need a concept plan and a build out from architects, and then do some fundraising to see how it can all come together.”

“The public is worried about finances, understandably,” Parks said.

Ahead of the committee meeting, member Elizabeth Eames said she expects misunderstanding about the financing of the purchase. “Expanding special education is our priority. (The funds) can only be used for buildings,” Eames said. “They can only be spent on the capital improvement kind of infrastructure.”