By Dan Hust
CALLICOON — Two bids have been made on the approximately 60 acres of land next to the Delaware Valley campus of Sullivan West in Callicoon.
SW Superintendent Ken Hilton confirmed yesterday that two qualified bids had been received Friday for the DV property – separate from the DV school itself, which already was successfully bid upon by developer Ilwon Kang, who envisions it as a boarding school.
Kang was one of the bidders for the land, but Hilton would not disclose the identity of the other bidder, honoring the bidder’s request for anonymity.
Neither would Hilton reveal both bid amounts, only saying that “the higher of the two bids was $205,000.”
A FOIL request was made by the Democrat for that information, but as of press time, the district had not provided names and amounts. (SW has, by law, five days to respond.)
The acreage was put up to bid earlier this year for a minimum of $400,000 but attracted no interest.
Kang was known to be very interested but said the minimum was too high, especially for a property whose mineral rights (i.e., oil and gas) are being retained by SW.
A hunting group has leased the land from SW, but that’s expected to run out by the time a sale is finalized.
As a result of the two bids, Hilton said an auction will be held today. It is not open to the public.
Once a winner is determined, the school board still has the right to accept or reject the bid. Once the board has chosen a successful bidder, he/she will have until mid-summer to conduct due diligence and decide whether or not to follow through with a purchase.