Saved! Paul Robeson Middle School escapes foreclosure

By Kathy Feist

Last week attorney Sean Pickett paid off the delinquent property taxes due on the Paul Robeson Middle School property at 8201 Holmes Rd., thus saving the property from a scheduled sale on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse.

“It’s been a journey,” said Pickett. “But we are moving forward, undaunted.”

Demolition will begin on September 6 with the removal of most of the paved track surrounding the football field. The demolition will provide more space for a planned rugby field.

Pickett is partnering with the KC Rugby Club on the project.

“We were going to do this last month, but because of the tax situation it was delayed,” said Pickett.

Pickett and a few investors purchased the property in 2017 from Kansas City Public Schools and formed the Robeson Holding Co. They agreed to repurpose the school for the benefit of the surrounding community. After meeting with the Waldo Tower Neighborhood Association and the Marlborough Community Coalition, plans were presented in 2018 for a free youth recreation center and senior living facility. Reconstruction involved upgrading the theater, swimming pool, and gymnastic facilities as well as adding two multi-sport fields. Possible tenants would include daycare providers, food vendors and even grocers or caterers.

The announcement generated excitement, but the timing was off. The pandemic (2019-2021) interrupted any hopes for corporate funding. Momentum slowed. And Pickett’s investors were losing interest.

O’Reilly Development Co., which specializes in senior living facilities, pulled out of the plan. In the past few months, Pickett and Robeson Holding Company had not only to buy out O’Reilly’s investment but pay the ballooning property taxes owed from 2021 to 2023. Somewhere in between those two financial hurdles, Pickett was able to announce new funding from a source interested in the project. “The investors are looking at this as a footprint for others like it across the country,” Pickett shared with the Telegraph in a June interview.

Those funds “are still coming through,” according to Pickett. Once the funding is in place, demolition will begin on those buildings that can’t be saved. The track demolition is being self funded by Pickett as he waits on his investor’s promise.

It’s been 19 years since Kansas City Public Schools closed the middle school. Since then, the property has become a blight to the community, an attraction to homeless individuals, graffiti artists and curious trespassers.

“For the past seven years, the school structure and grounds have become increasingly blighted under Mr. Pickett’s ownership,” says Diane Hershberger, executive director of the Marlborough Community Coalition in a statement to the Telegraph. “Many neighbors are now concerned if the development plan proposed by Mr. Pickett can ever be achieved.

They are interested in seeing the blighted conditions taken care of as soon as possible.”