By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WEST VILLAGE — Plans to move a school into a massive Morton Street building will not become reality anytime soon, education chiefs said.
Despite published reports that suggest the Department of Education is in active talks to buy 75 Morton St., a spokesman said there are no ongoing negotiations and a school won't be able to move in until at least 2015.
The department has reportedly balked at the 177,000 square-foot building’s $78 million price tag. It’s currently owned by the state.
“We have had correspondence with the state, but there are currently no active negotiations,” Department of Education spokesperson Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld told DNAinfo.
“This is a site that we would potentially be interested in for a long-term need.”
The property has been at the center of a variety of campaigns headed by local politicians, activists and parents encouraging the city to purchase it for academic use. Campaigners have suggested it be used by Greenwich Village Middle School or the Clinton School for Writers and Artists.
The Department of Education said the earliest a school could move into the building would be in 2015, considering the time the state would need to vacate and for necessary fixes on the building.
For now, Clinton School’s move into the American Sign Language School and English Lower School building on East 23rd Street in fall 2011 will be reviewed at a Panel for Education Policy vote in June, unless another location is found.
The school will permanently relocate to a building at 10 E. 15th St. in 2015.
Greenwich Village Middle School will move to the Financial District this fall.
