Midlands school district paid almost $5M for this site but opened planned center elsewhere

Lexington 2 opened the school district’s new $52.5 million performing arts center and district office in March, inaugurating a state-of-the-art venue that can hold 1,500 people for district-wide events. It includes two-level balcony seating, upgraded stage lighting and sound systems, dressing rooms and enough backstage space to accommodate music, theater and dance performers.

But four years ago, the district bought a different site, with the expressed intention of opening a performing arts center there. The 28-acre site at 12th Street Extension and Saxe Gotha Road sites across from the headquarters of Dominion Energy, near the tail end of Interstate 77. Now, that vast property sits unused, despite the hefty price paid by the school district.

When Lexington 2 purchased it in 2020 for $4.7 million, the district touted it as a future site for the planned performing arts center.

“Our board has chosen a highly visible and accessible location for the district fine arts center,” then-Lexington 2 Superintendent William James said in a press release at the time, announcing the project would open within three years, part of a $225 million bond referendum approved in 2014. “It will be an outstanding venue with seating for over 2,000 individuals, allowing us to host district-wide events with employees, families, and the community. Additionally, the facility will house the district office, allowing for a cost savings and joint use of space that would otherwise be duplicated in separate facilities.”

In the same statement, Cayce City Councilman Phil Carter heralded the purchase as an anchor for future development on the south side of town near the interstate. But when the school district’s new arts center opened this spring some 7 miles away on Platt Springs Road, it left a large undeveloped lot on the site originally planned for the center.

Instead, the arts center and district office were moved to a 26-acre site at 3205 Platt Springs Road in Springdale, which the district also purchased in 2020 for $1.3 million. This site was ultimately chosen for the new facilities, which began construction in late 2021 and open to the public on May 1.

Lexington 2 did not respond to questions from The State about why the planned location of the performing arts center was moved.

But at the time of its purchase, the Platt Springs site was announced as part of the district’s “long-range capital improvements plan” with an eye toward future school construction.

“Tracts in our school district large enough for schools are extremely difficult to find, particularly as there are efforts to attract new residential and business development,” then-Superintendent James said at the time. “We felt fortunate to find this site, and to be able to get it below asking price and appraised value.”

The property on Saxe Gotha Road is not the only school-owned property currently sitting unused.

Eight acres on Ann Lane between North Eden Drive and Taylor Road were the former side of Claude A. Taylor Elementary School. First constructed in 1964, the school was closed at the end of the 2016-17 school year when the new Cayce Elementary School opened. It briefly hosted the Lexington 2 Innovation Center before a new facility to house the center opened in 2018, and the old school building was torn down in the summer of 2020.

A district official said both the Saxe Gotha and Taylor Elementary sites are being considered by the district for future growth needs in Lexington 2.