SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — It’s not a college anymore but there is hope that learning will continue on the former Presentation College campus in Aberdeen.
The Presentation Sisters, who own the campus property, will sell the nursing building to the city of Aberdeen for $330,000. The Aberdeen City Council approved the purchase agreement at Monday’s meeting.
The city has been discussing the possibility of Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls having classes or a program in the building, Aberdeen Mayor Travis Schaunaman said in a KELOLAND News interview Thursday.
“There’s nothing set in stone,” Schaunaman said. “There is no commitment on their part. We hope to recruit them or another technical school to the site.”
The roots of the Presentation Sisters are in the 1700s when founder Nano Nagle established schools in Ireland for Catholic children who could not obtain because of strict English rules. A change in ownership matches the Presentation vision and mission, Sister Mary Thomas of the Presentation Sisters said in a Thursday interview with KELOLAND News.
“The mayor’s vision is that there is a significant gap of certain trade professionals in the Aberdeen area,” said Thomas, the president of Presentation Sisters.
If the plan for technical education does not work there are other opportunities, Schaunaman said.
“We’re not going to let it sit empty for years,” Schaunaman said. “There is zero chance that this won’t get used.” Yet, “these things do take time.”
The city would have other educational or community options such as using it for a senior citizens center because the existing facility is getting too small, he said.
Thomas said the purchase agreement does not require the city to use the building only for education.
“We can’t tie the city’s hands too tightly,” Thomas said. If education does work, Presentation Sisters know the use will be “something that provides for the well being of the community,” she said.
The city has been successful with the purchase of the Strode Center, which is a basketball arena and an athletic dome from the Presentation Sisters, Thomas and Schaunaman said.
“We’re getting great use out of it,” Schaunaman said. The two facilities have been the sites of multiple basketball games and tournaments, pickle ball gams, and soccer and baseball games and tournaments, he said.
The city’s parks and recreation departments has also had non-sport events such as bouncy houses and other activities for families and children.
During the Monday council meeting and again on Thursday, Schaunaman commented on the reasonable price of $330,000.
Thomas said the amount is less than the listed price. In a way, it is a gift to the city but “what the market will bear,” was also considered, she said.
The city has demonstrated throughout Presentation’s time in the community that it has values and vision similar to Presentation, Thomas said.
The purchase of the nursing building is not the only change on the former college campus. In the two years since the college closed, the city bought the Strode Center and athletic dome.
The Aberdeen Housing Authority is converting a dorm into housing that would include Section 8 tenants, Schaunaman said. A Catholic housing organization is converting other dorms into market rent housing, he said.
The Presentation Sisters are demolishing the main campus building called the Motherhouse.
“It’s bittersweet,” Thomas said of the demolition project. Two landmarks in the city of the campus will be gone but the plan is to create public outdoor green space.
She likened it to how Christians live out the Paschal Mystery which is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the salvation provided through that. The buildings were built to serve and had a life of service but now, they will be buried or demolished, which leads to a new life.
