Officials rejects Dublin schools’ plan to buy Cardinal Health building for $37 million

DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) — Dublin officials are striking down a pitch by Dublin City Schools to buy a central Ohio healthcare provider’s headquarters for $37 million to serve as a new high school for the district.

The school district settled on a purchase agreement with Cardinal Health to buy the company’s 250,000 square-foot west campus headquarters at 7200 Cardinal Place. However, the Dublin Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the idea during an Aug. 8 meeting and argued that rezoning the site from commercial to academic use would not align with the city’s “Envision Dublin” community plan, which went into effect Aug. 1.

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“We are eight days into the plan. To recommend violating the plan, eight days in, after having 18 months of planning where Dublin City Schools was at the table and planning right along with us, I don’t think that would be what the city council is looking for,” said Rebecca Call, chair of the planning and zoning commission.

John Marschhausen, superintendent of Dublin schools, said during the meeting that the district is anticipating 2,000 more high school students over the next eight to 10 years. He explained that the upcoming Bishop Elementary will be over capacity when the building opens next fall, and Eversole Run Middle School and Abraham Depp Elementary already use modulars for overflow.

Marschhausen argued the district’s acquisition of Cardinal’s now empty building makes the most financial sense given the cost to build a high school would be more than $200 million. The superintendent also noted that the $145 million bond issue and a 7.9 mill operating levy that passed last year grants the district the authority to issue another $40 million in debt, which would allow Dublin schools to buy the building “without going back to the voters for additional resources.”

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“Taxes are very high in Dublin. We were very fortunate to pass our most recent levy,” said Marschhausen. “Working together, if we can get 250,000 square feet that’s usable as academic space, it be a opportunity for us as a school district and community to save our taxpayers over $150 million.”

Ed Daniels, Cardinal’s chief security officer, reiterated to the committee that the building has been emptied by Cardinal, so “there’s no revenue being generated.” Daniels said Cardinal, who moved its operations to inside the building directly to the east, is likely to keep the west building empty if the deal with Dublin schools does not progress.

“We are very conscious about who we are going to be next to and, if we sell that property to someone, we don’t control that,” said Daniels. “We sell it to the schools, we know for the foreseeable future who our neighbor is going to be.”

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Still, Call said Envision Dublin outlines a very “black and white” picture for the site and reaffirmed that the committee will not deviate from the plan. And, regardless of the plan, Call argued the property raises a number of concerns given its proximity to Interstate 270, and urged Dublin schools to assess other local buildings for conversion opportunities.

“We do have other areas in this city that are office uses that are empty buildings that could have equally fiscally-fortuitous opportunities outside of the particular Cardinal campus that I would invite you to explore,” she said.

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