Private School Bids For Shuttered CPS Property

(CBS) -- A bidding war over a former CPS building?

A private Chicago school hopes to buy a property that closed more than a year ago. But could the Chicago Public Schools system make more cash if it goes commercial?

CBS 2's Lauren Victory reports from University Village.

This property – the former Moses Montefiore Academy -- went on the market in January.

Developers may be interested. So, too, is Urban Prairie Waldorf School, which has already outgrown its second home.

"We'd been planning for a long time to have a long-term home for our school," parent Michael Levine says. "We started out in a storefront on 16th and Halsted eight years ago."

Adds Heather Berhalter, Urban Prairie administrator: "We have so many preschoolers coming up. If we don't find a new space, they're going to be sitting in each other's laps."

One obstacle is convincing CPS to sell Moses Montefiore Academy to Urban Prairie.

The Ashland Avenue school has sat vacant for more than a year. CPS needed bids this past Monday, and Urban Prairie needed fast cash to show commitment and interest.

Berhalter says the school raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in a three-day capital campaign.

"The way that our community rallied around this, we know that even if we don't end up getting this space, we will get a space," parent Elisa Davis says.