In the end, the Ames Community School District prevailed in its quest to obtain 122 acres of ISU land.

The district was the highest bidder in the June 30 auction at the Holiday Inn Gateway Center to purchase Iowa State’s land, which is located near State Avenue and Mortensen Road. The offer was $20,500 per acre or about $2,516,000.

School district officials have said they intend to use the land for educational purposes.

“Either a new middle school or a new high school,” school board member Mary Jane Bastiaans said of the possible uses for the land. “Right now, we are beginning to survey what the community wants.”

Bastiaans said a new facility is needed because of overcrowding in the existing schools.

The school board had made several attempts to purchase the land before the auction. It offered $17,000 per acre to the university in January and then $25,000 per acre in March after Iowa State declined the first offer.

After the second offer was declined, university officials decided to hold an auction to receive what they thought would be a fair market value.

Warren Madden, ISU vice president for Business and Finance, said six bid forms were taken out from the university, but only two bidders attended the auction.

“I would have preferred different organizations or different bidders,” Madden said.

The Oak Development Company of West Des Moines was present to bid against the school board but didn’t bid high enough.

“Obviously, the school district wanted the land,” Bastiaans said. “We didn’t go in trying to lowball a price; we went in expecting an auction.”

Bastiaans and the rest of the Ames School District will have to wait to start the project until at least July 10 when the university will have to make a recommendation to the Board of Regents and the State Executive Council of acceptance or denial of the offer.

“We are in the process of evaluating the bid,” Madden said. “We wanted to get market value. That’s one of the things we are evaluating.”