A furniture retailer hopes the courts and the Butler School Board will consider its offer for the former Broad Street Elementary School.

And if that new bid is successful, the company may try to buy another of the district’s recently closed schools, J.M. Beatty Furniture’s owner said.

The school board on Monday approved a sales agreement with the Arc of Butler County to buy the vacant Broad Street school building for $475,007, contingent on review by Judge S. Michael Yeager and other conditions.

The Arc’s offer initially was the highest the school district received after putting the building out to bid for a second time in October.

However, Beatty Furniture on Monday sent the district a second bid on the property for $530,000, which was up from its first $380,000 proposal made last month.

District solicitor Tom King said that second bid would be factored into Yeager’s decision.

A hearing on the sale of the building will be held before Yeager at 9 a.m. Dec. 22.

Chad Beatty, owner of the furniture retailer on Route 38 in Washington Township, said his company is looking to expand with a shop in Butler.

“It would be our first expansion,” he said. “We’ve been considering this for a couple months.”

Beatty said the business is looking to expand closer to the Cranberry Township and Pittsburgh markets.

He said if awarded the bid for the Broad Street school, the company would then also have interest in buying another building to serve as a warehouse.

Beatty said he has mulled over the possibility of bidding on the former Oakland Elementary School to serve that need.

John Link, executive director of the Arc, said on Monday he wanted to speak with Beatty’s owners to see if the company is interested in using one of the Arc’s current buildings.

Chad Beatty said he has not spoken with anyone from the Arc yet and added the company has not had any interest in Arc’s properties.

Butler City Council in the past has said it would support a for-profit business taking over the Broad Street school.

Each of the council members at the meeting Tuesday said they would favor the building going to Beatty for tax reasons.

Donaldson said the furniture store would bring in at least $1,300 per year in property tax revenue.

“That would be my preference in looking out for the taxpayers, but I don’t have any objections to the Arc,” he said.

The city last month voted to appeal the new tax assessment on the school.

Broad Street recently was appraised for $355,000 and $578,000. The county tax assessment office accepted the lower of the two appraisals — a move that would cost the city about $1,000 per year in taxes.

The city later decided against the appeal, noting that the city would be getting some business tax revenue if a for-profit business acquired the property.