Escambia County Superintendent of Schools Malcolm Thomas told the School Board that he had rejected an offer from Friendship Missionary Baptist Church of $500,000 for the Brownville Middle School. Thomas told the board that the church had offered $800,000 last July and he was surprised when the offer was reduced when it was submitted in mid-October. He rejected the offer in less than 24 hours and halted all negotiations. Thomas never passed on a copy of the offer to the board.
After the meeting, Rev. LuTimothy May, pastor of the church, told me that his church never made the $800K offer. That Thomas met with him in July at Krispy Kreme and said that he would accept that amount. May made it clear that the church board would have to make that decision after their experts reviewed the deal and the property. The $800K offer came from Thomas not the church, according to May.
Clarification: The Church did draft an offer for $800K on June 16 for the entire property. It was rejected. When Thomas met with May in July, he told May that he would accept $800K, but it would be for less property – which later turned out to be about a third of the property. What Rev. May was telling me (I misunderstood in my earlier post) was that the church never made a signed offer and after it was rejected so quickly Rev. May thought the issue was dead. It wasn’t until Thomas met with him at Krispy Kreme that he learned it was back on the table, but even then he didn’t commit his church to the $800K for considerably less property.