Three months after the Scranton School Board agreed to sell the former East Scranton Intermediate School to a rabbi from Brooklyn, it is still awaiting documentation from the prospective buyer to move ahead with the deal.

Some board members are getting impatient.

“I’m concerned it’s been almost three and a half months,” board President Brian Jeffers said. “How long is too long? Well, I don’t know, but I don’t want to wait much longer.”

The board voted unanimously Aug. 28 to sell the Quincy Avenue property to Rabbi Alter Rosenbaum for $400,000. The rabbi is the leader of a Nadvorna Hasidic community that wants to use the building as a school for families that would relocate to the city from Brooklyn.

Under the pending agreement of sale, Rabbi Rosenbaum is required to provide the district with two appraisals for the property.

As of late last week, only one had been submitted to the district, acknowledged Teri Backus, the real estate agent who is brokering the sale.

Ms. Backus said a second appraiser has examined the building and is preparing a formal report. She hopes to submit it within two weeks.

“That’s my goal,” she said. “Everyone wants this done as soon as possible. We all want the same thing.”

The district needs the appraisals before it can petition Lackawanna County Court for permission to sell the building. Under the state School Code, the district’s petition must include two affidavits affirming $400,000 is a “fair and reasonable” offer for the building and that a better price could not be obtained at public sale.

The district’s agreement of sale contains no specific deadline for submission of the appraisals, but district officials are questioning the delay.

Board member Thomas Gilbride, an attorney, said there is a “reasonable” amount of time allowed in nearly all proposed real estate transactions to deal with unexpected snags. The issue, he said, is what constitutes reasonable.

“If it starts lasting too long, you have to say, ‘Hey, why should we wait any longer?’ ” he said.

District solicitor Harry McGrath would say only that the district is waiting for needed documents from Rabbi Rosenbaum and declined further comment until after he reviews the situation with the board.

There is another offer on the table for the school, and for more money. Madison School Properties LLC, led by city businessman Paul Mansour, notified the district in October that it is willing to pay $500,000 for East Intermediate.

Attorney Matthew Barrett, who represents Mr. Mansour’s company, said his client will seek to intervene at the hearing if and when the district petitions county court to sell the property to Rabbi Rosenbaum. The company will argue $400,000 is not a reasonable price for the building.

Ms. Backus said the delay in getting the appraisals had nothing to do with Mr. Mansour’s offer. It simply took time to line up qualified commercial appraisers to do the work, she said.

“It’ll be up to the judge,” Ms. Backus said. “Everything at our end will be done.”

TTT