A Hammond trucking firm is offering the city of Gary $1.15 million for the long-abandoned Thomas Edison School at 5400 W. 5th Ave.

The bid from Djuric Trucking, 4714 S. Sheffield Ave., was opened with two others during Wednesday’s redevelopment commission meeting.

The two other bids fell below the minimum bid price, officials said. They were from Gary Development Partners LLC, Michigan City, $101,000, and Wildcat Management LLC, Gilbert, Illinois, $100,000. The commission didn’t take action on the bids, referring them to staff for review.

A spokesman for Djuric Trucking declined to comment Thursday on its plans for the property, deferring to the city until the bids were finalized.

In October, the redevelopment commission accepted deed transfers for Edison and six parcels including the former Ivanhoe Elementary from the Gary Community School Corp.

Redevelopment commission director A.J. Bytnar said then the city would demolish the buildings and place them on the sale market.

Officials said the commission is continuing to negotiate additional intergovernmental transfers from the school district for Wirt-Emerson, Aetna, Nobel, and Brunswick schools. At a press conference last January outside Edison, Mayor Jerome Prince criticized the school district and threatened it with unsafe building code violations for allowing its shuttered schools to become neighborhood eyesores.

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.