Old Gateway School sale closes March 31

Columbia Falls School District 6 earlier this month approved the final purchase and sale agreement of the old Glacier Gateway Elementary School to Ruis Gateway LLC, owned by Columbia Falls developer Mick Ruis.

According to the agreement, the sale will close March 31.

The sale price is $550,000.

The two gyms that come with the school will be used by the tenants and the Ruis Wrestling Academy, which he founded.

The classrooms would be converted to housing units — about 30 units.

The sale does not include the north wing of the school. That will be torn down in the coming months.

The school used to be the high school and then was used as a junior high as well.

It sits on a 2.754 acre tract of land, so Ruis can expand the development to the south if he wants to. The open space was the playground to the school.

He said construction work won’t start this year — they have a lot of planning and engineering work on the project to complete, first.