Nanaimo school district is on the hunt for a short-term tenant for the vacant Mount Benson school site.
When the school closed in 2008, trustees asked staff to investigate the possibility of converting the building into a community centre. Later that year, the district was given an $8,000 provincial grant for a consultant to talk to the community and potential tenants.
The consultant identified 37 interested organizations and a range of services the community wanted to see in the building, from daycare to activities for seniors. But staff were unable to find a main tenant who would provide enough lease money to make the venture cost-neutral for the district.
"The bottom line was it was not going to be economically feasible at that point," said Carol McNamee, vice-chairwoman of the school board.
"My concern is that building has been empty for three years. Even if a building is empty, we still have to maintain it. The idea of renting it is that they would then look after the building."
Trustees approved the motion to seek a short-term tenant for the site at Wednesday's board meeting.
This is the second time the issue has come up at a board meeting. In February, the motion was sent back to the facilities planning committee because some trustees wanted staff to look into potential future educational uses of the building before looking for a tenant.
McNamee said a short-term lease of five years means that if the building is needed to house students again, it would be available and in the meantime, the district would not lose a lot of money in upkeep costs.