Commonwealth Court on Friday upheld the sale of the former Gladstone Middle School to a group that aims to turn it into a community center and affordable housing, rather than to a tech company that offered the highest bid for the property.
Guagamela Holdings offered $1.5 million for the vacant Hazelwood building in 2015, when the Pittsburgh Public Schools put a number of vacant buildings up for sale. Guagamela said it planned to pay in cash with profits it earned from mining bitcoins, but the school district sold the property for its asking price of $250,000 to Gladstone Community Partnership, a subsidiary of the Hazelwood Initiative.
The sale closed a year later — in November 2016 — and weeks after that, Gaugamela sued the school district and the Gladstone Community Partnership, alleging the sale was illegal based on procedures outlined in the Pennsylvania Public School Code that regulate the sale of former school buildings in excess of 25 years of age.
In February 2017, Common Pleas Judge Michael A. Della Vecchia dismissed Gaugamela’s case, citing the company’s legal obligation to file suit in a timely manner. The judge held that Gaugamela had unreasonably delayed its complaint, waiting over a year after its bid was rejected in November 2015 to file a complaint. Commonwealth Court affirmed that ruling in its opinion Friday.
Guagamela CEO and founder Francis Pitt said he disagreed with the court’s ruling and intended to appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
“The court isn’t saying that the sale of Gladstone was conducted legally — it obviously wasn’t — they’re saying that we simply waited too long to file our complaint,” he said in an emailed statement Friday. “However, there is no statute of limitations here.”
Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1590 or @Ebehrman on Twitter.
First Published: August 11, 2018, 12:50 a.m.