The Ames School District will be the new owner of 122.75 acres of ISU land — it will just pay more for the property than what it originally offered.

An auction for the land, which is located near State Avenue and Mortensen Road, was held June 30.

The Ames School District had the highest bid with $20,500 per acre or about $2,516,000, but university officials rejected that offer shortly after the auction because they didn’t feel the amount was appropriate with the land’s market value.

Vice President for Business and Finance Warren Madden said the university late last week accepted the counter-offer of $25,000 per acre.

“It was raised to 25 [thousand] because back in March, that’s what we originally had the land appraised,” said W. Ray Richardson, deputy superintendent of the Ames School District.

The school board offered $17,000 per acre in January and then $25,000 per acre in March after Iowa State declined the first offer.

Since university officials weren’t satisfied with the offers, the 122 acres of land were put up for auction.

The school district is planning to use the land for either a new elementary or middle school.

“It’s essential for the district to have gotten the land,” Richardson said.

Madden said the sale still needs to be approved by three other organizations: the state Board of Regents, the Iowa Executive Council and the ISU Foundation. The regents’ meetings are July 19 and 20.

“We’re recommending to the regents to approve the sale,” Madden said.

The ISU Foundation owns 39.3 acres of the land. Sale of the foundation’s land is subject to the approval of its Board of Directors, which meets later this week.

“Assuming the governmental bodies will approve, the land is theirs,” Madden said.

Richardson said the school district is conducting a phone survey to see what the community thinks should go on the land.

“If they didn’t [get the land], it would stifled the growth,” he said. “It will allow us to move forward as a city and to provide an education for our students.”