The market for shuttered, vandalized, 1920s-era elementary schools on Charleston's West Side is not so hot.
Two such schools were tentatively sold at auction Wednesday morning, but for prices far below the listed minimum bids, meaning the Kanawha County Board of Education will have to approve the sales before they are final.
"What you see is what you get," auctioneer and Charleston real estate agent Jay Goldman said outside Watts Elementary School. "Don't expect the Board of Education to clean it up for you."
Inside Watts, about an inch of water stood in a couple places on the first floor. First-floor windows were boarded over, to prevent further vandalism.
Watts, on Costello Street on the West Side hill, sold for $20,000. The minimum bid was $53,000, and the school's appraised value is $628,000, according to auction materials.
An hour later and a mile west, J.E. Robins Elementary School, on Beech Avenue, sold for $11,000. Its minimum bid had been $76,000. It was appraised at more than $800,000.
Tony Romeo Jr., a Charleston landlord, bought both former schools.
Romeo said he had no plans to buy both, but with only one other bidder and the prices so low, well ...
"I came for the show and, it turns out, I am the show," he said.
"Maybe some apartments," he said when asked of his plans for Watts.
The same tentative plan held for Robins: "Hopefully, rent some of it out into apartments," he said.
Both schools have been closed since 2014, when they were replaced on the West Side by Edgewood Elementary.
Parts of the former schools show how recently they were fully functional.
Pictures in the entryway of J.E. Robins tout the school's "Masterminds," who scored high on West Virginia's former standardized test - Christina, Viktor and Delacy. Hallways are lined with inspirational posters: "If I were a J.E. Robins leader, doors would surely open wide for me."
But the floors are strewn with broken glass from many shattered windows. Hallways are littered with papers, supplies, video cassettes and bric-a-brac.
Goldman auctioned off Robins in the school's former auditorium, filled with haphazardly stacked desks, tables, cabinets and chairs.
"These buildings have no commercial value because they're in a residential neighborhood," he said. "You see the condition they're in. It's a shame."
There was only one other bidder on the two buildings, Michael Potter, another local landlord and property manager. Potter said he was concerned about possible asbestos in the buildings and the likely heavy costs to get them cleaned up.
"I have no idea of the costs," he said. "That's just the problem."
Chuck Wilson, director of facilities for Kanawha County Schools, said he wouldn't guess as to whether the school board would accept the drastically below-minimum bids. Nor did he feel it was his place to make a recommendation.
"Everyone is interested in having a viable entity in these old school buildings," Wilson said. "It sure beats having them vacant."
Romeo, personally and through his company, Wilton Corp., owns at least 22 properties in Kanawha County, according to property records. In 1979, soon after Romeo began acquiring rental property, an East End rooming house he owned caught fire, killing three people, according to Gazette-Mail archives.
In the 1990s, a ramshackle rental home Romeo owned in the South Hills area was razed after inspectors found a mortar shell there. The house, a longtime eyesore in disrepair, was ordered torn down by Goldman, then a Charleston municipal judge.
In 2006, Romeo and family members were sued after a property they owned on the West Side caught fire, allegedly damaging the neighboring property, according to the West Virginia Record.
He has, for more than 20 years, owned another abandoned school - the former St. Albans Junior High School, on Kanawha Terrace.
Romeo bought that former school in 1995 for $20,000 and used it to store restaurant equipment, according to Gazette-Mail archives. He got a zoning variance after proposing to use part of the old school for storage and part for one apartment and for a meeting room for Boy Scouts. The apartment and meeting space plans never panned out.
It also fell into disrepair, causing neighbors to complain for years.
"It looks like a junkyard," a St. Albans city councilor said about a year after Romeo bought the building. "It looks to me like he moved his trash and garbage from Charleston, who was making him clean it up, to St. Albans."
Outside Watts Elementary on Wednesday, Sue Rayhill had higher hopes. Rayhill lives two blocks from the school, which she attended in the 1960s. Her mother attended Watts in the 1930s.
She'd hung signs on the fence that bordered school property: "Bidding? We're good folks and we want another good neighbor," said one.
"Watts Elementary gave us good memories. Add your teacher's name," said another.
"I wanted to encourage buyers to do something good for the neighborhood," Rayhill said. "It's been a good school in this neighborhood for a long time. Hopefully, it will still be something good."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.