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ALPENA -- The Rogers City Area Schools Board of Education is expected to vote on the future of the Grambau Educational Center at its meeting in August.
The former school has been sitting vacant for years and several attempts to sell it for development projects have fallen through the cracks.
This time, the school system may have more than one option for selling the school and what will be done with it.
At a meeting on Monday, the school board voted to table taking action on an offer from Dave Dargis for the school to allow time for another downstate investor who specializes in renovating old schools into housing to put in an offer.
According to board President Greg Zurakowski, Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Coordinator Lenny Avery has been in communications with Ethos Development Partners, a Detroit firm, about the Grambau Center and showed it to them.
Now, Ethos could be in play, along with Dargis, to acquire the property.
"This really kind of came out of the blue," Zurakowski said.
The school board is waiting to get more details on what Dargis intends to do with the property if the school system accepts his bid and waits on an update from Ethos, Avery, and Rogers City, which is also urging the school to hold off on a sale until the downstate company has an opportunity to pursue a potential deal and offer.
Zurakowski said that, no matter what direction the board decides to go, the goal is to make sure the old building, which needs much work, suits the needs of the community.
"If we can pull something off that's going to be good for the region, we're all for that."