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[JimV]

http://sharonherald.com/local/x1703934251/Board-sells-middle-school-for-1-2-mil
 
Ironically, the middle school building is one of very few buildings (perhaps the only one) in the so-called "town center" area of Hermitage that actually fits into the vision of the town center plan.  And now, in its place, we're likely going to get another asphalt ocean and half-empty strip plaza!
 
I hope folks wake up and realize that the only "town center" this Valley will ever have is the one that exists fully-infrastructured just a few miles due west...

[Jayhawk]

For once a school building sold for more than a month's utility bills, but the prime land is what sold for about a quarter-million an acre.

missing in all this is any reference to the master plan for a hermitage town center, this being a key parcel in what could be a new-urbanism development. If it is retail, i hope it's quality and something beyond another nail salon. When you look throughout the area at all the long-vacant space in strip malls, it's astonishing that there would be any reason to build anything anew.

[JimV]

Yes, it's the land that sold, not the building.  I wouldn't be surprised if the school's location was one of the reasons why it was ultimately closed rather than renovated.
 
The sale is a good thing in the short term for the taxpayers of Hermitage; in the long term, time will tell.  I will say, though, that this is probably the final death knell of the town center plan, which the city never seemed to keen on in the first place.  The middle school would have made a great community center, or even the site of a future Hermitage branch of the Mercer County Consolidated Library System...wait, the libraries haven't merged yet?
 
Not surprisingly, the Herald published its typical drooling speculatory response today, headlined "Retail stores, eateries on way?"  (Note the plurals.)  Calm down guys, it's only 3.7 acres!

[Jayhawk]

"Retail stores, eateries on way?"  (Note the plurals.)  Calm down guys, it's only 3.7 acres!

well, that's what the developer boasted, though probably meaning no more than 2 or 3.

But if this is such a hot location, explain why outparcels in front of lowes are vacant 10 years later and no one has moved into the office depot space. Both are just a few hundred feet farther away from the intersection.

There's also the long-vacant Maytag store in the park place plaza right next door as well as a lot adjacent to it that has been vacant and for sale for 25 years. And let's not forget the Plaza of Death and for-sale outparcels beside the biggest traffic magnet of all, walmart.

So it's hard to believe any claim that retailers are just itching to get in on new construction because of this particular location when equal space already is sitting idle.