Reuses of closed schools in Windsor, Ontario

Fifty-two schools have been closed in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, since the earliest-recorded one in 1959, with only three remaining vacant and for sale as of late-2004. Twenty of the 49 reused closed schools have been either redeployed, transferred, or sold at a nominal price without ever being on the market; 14 of these have reopened with an educational use. At the same time, 29 have been sold at market prices, with 13 of these reused for new houses or conversions to apartments and condominiums, and 10 for institutions such as offices. The current study refines and operationalizes a theoretical urban-economic development rule for measuring the optimality and efficiency of these 29 closed schools’ current reuses. The finding was that, while most current reuses are not suboptimum, they are also not efficient, especially since their current property values significantly exceed their sale prices as closed schools. This finding is assessed in terms of public policy for the reuse of small vacant urban sites.