Farmington Schools Sale of Eagle Elementary On Hold

The sale of Eagle Elementary, at 14 Mile and Middlebelt Roads in Farmington Hills, to the Islamic Cultural Association (ICA) has been placed on hold for at least two weeks.

have appealed a recent circuit court decision; an attorney for the district said that's causing some concerns with a title company.

Eugene Greenstein of Farmington Hills and Melvin C. Sternfeld of West Bloomfield filed suit in Oakland County Circuit Court July 29, after to approve the sale. The plaintiffs claimed they would be negatively affected because they live near the property, and that stopping the sale would allow Sternfeld, a real estate broker, and his clients to bid on the property.

At Tuesday night's Farmington School Board meeting, attorney Joseph Fazio of Miller Canfield said , but .

"The fact that the appeal is still outstanding is causing some concerns as to whether the district can satisfy its obligations to ensure the transaction through a third-party title company," Fazio said. The district asked the buyers for a two-week extension of the time period to close, to give the district time to find out the title company's requirements.

ICA had 120 days from the acceptance of their offer to determine whether the purchase is still in their best interests, which ended earlier this month. The closing would follow 30 days later. The closing date will be Nov. 30. The buyer's investigation period has been extended to the end of October, Fazio said.

Board member Howard Wallach said the plaintiffs had filed a motion for peremptory reversal, which asks for an immediate reversal of the lower court's ruling. That was denied within three days, he said, so the first part of the appeal was effectively denied.

Board member Timothy Devine asked whether the district had required the plaintiffs to post some sort of bond "to reflect the risk to the deal and potential cost to the district of revenue of a million dollars".

Fazio said the requirement for a bond would have been triggered if the plaintiffs had made a request to stay (temporarily stop) the transaction. He added the district is looking into options that would either clear the sale or "require something like that."