In the latest chapter of the years-long saga surrounding E.E. Smith High School’s relocation, a local real estate investor has offered two parcels in the Murchison Road area — but Cumberland County officials don’t appear interested.
Justin Tahilramani is one of the owners of the Southern Pines-based Sandhills Real Estate Holdings and has worked in real estate since 2011 after being stationed at Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg. Tahilramani emailed the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners and the Cumberland County Board of Education on March 28 after reading about the relocation debacle in the news, he said.
E.E. Smith, the historically Black high school, is a source of pride for its alumni. But the school faces significant infrastructure issues, with officials calling the 1800 Seabrook Road building “structurally and educationally inadequate” in a failed grant application. Requests for funding for a new building from the N.C. Dept. of Public Instruction have not been successful, school officials told state legislators last month.
Controversy erupted in January when the school board voted 5-3 to present a site at the Stryker Golf Course on Fort Liberty to county commissioners as a viable option for a new E.E. Smith. Opponents, which included school board members Carrie Sutton and Judy Musgrave, said moving the school so far from its current site would destroy the heart of the neighborhood. Those in favor of the Stryker site, meanwhile, said it was the only option deemed possible by engineers hired by the school system.
In a map attached to his email, which was shared with CityView, Tahilramani highlighted two adjoining parcels his company owns: a 5.24-acre site and a 9.79-acre site. He also put a question mark over a neighboring 10-acre site owned by a different investor, which he told CityView he thinks could be an option for purchase.
Property records show another investment company deeded Sandhills Real Estate Holdings the 5.24-acre parcel for free in May 2023, with the total taxable value of the land estimated at $62,880. The company purchased the 9.79-acre parcel for $15,000 in August 2023, and it is worth $12,507, according to county records. Tahilramani did not offer an estimated price for the parcels in his email, noting he was prepared to discuss the terms of sale and “favorable conditions to facilitate this pivotal development.”
Tahilramani told CityView he read about the E.E. Smith debate in the news, prompting him to reach out to commissioners and school officials. He said he previously briefly talked with the city of Fayetteville about using the parcels for an affordable housing project, but those talks fizzled out.
“We put it on hold and have just kind of been holding onto the property, and then this has come up,” Tahilramani said. “[It was] more of just making sure they know that there is land in that area and people are willing to have conversations about selling it.”
But in the week since he sent the email, none of the seven county commissioners or nine school board members have replied, Tahilramani said.
“It is a little bit surprising because you’d expect, if nothing else, just an acknowledgment,” he said. “If the school’s history is tied to its location, how does it make sense to move it out of that location and still somehow maintain that?”
Could it work?
Chairman Glenn Adams told CityView Thursday that he wasn’t sure if Tahilramani’s parcels would be feasible for a relocated site.
“One of the problems with that whole neighborhood is that there are no kids in the neighborhood,” Adams said. “The school board hasn’t done any redistricting for years. If they don’t redistrict, you still have the issue of, where do the kids come from?”
He said the students from Fort Liberty who attend E.E. Smith must be considered as well in the school’s eventual location. According to the Cumberland County Schools website, students are assigned a school district by their address, which parents can determine by typing in an address on the district map. Fort Liberty is shown as being assigned to E.E. Smith.
“We’re trying to look for something that is convenient for everybody,” he said.
Adams also noted the size of the parcels as another potential issue.
The N.C. Dept. of Public Instruction recommends 30 developable acres with an extra acre for each 100 students for high schools. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, E.E. Smith had 1,004 students in the 2022-2023 school year, meaning a new school would need at least 40 developable acres.
However, Adams said, he believes any new school should be built up, with more stories, rather than having facilities spread out across many acres.
“What concerns me sometimes is that our schools are so wide open that people can come from all different kinds of angles,” he said. “If you can go up some for security reasons or whatever, you may not need as much land.”
In any case, the county commissioners are focusing on other priorities with impending deadlines at the moment, like budget season and other projects on the horizon, Adams said.
“I’m not really worried about it right this minute,” he said. “We’ve got the performing arts, we’ve got the support center. We’re still dealing with Gray’s Creek. Those are some priorities on the board.”
He said the board has not yet received information from the school board on the Stryker Golf Course site.
Tahilramani said that whether or not the county is interested in the land for E.E. Smith, he hopes it can be used for something good for the Murchison Road area.
“We’re right there where the city is trying to do a lot of revitalization,” he said. “What do they want to see in that area?”
Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
