Mill plan too pricey for schools?

I initially blogged about a discussion that Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and some school officials had about potentially selling the Andrew Johnson Building and relocating the school system administration. Click right smack here for that bad boy.

Well, it looks like I was right as our education reporter was able to confirm that with Superintendent Jim McIntyre. Annnnnnd, right smack here for that one. According to some very early preliminary talks, the school system is looking into moving its headquarters from the heart of downtown to Standard Knitting Mill, which closed decades ago, on Washington Avenue.

However, it looks like it's a no-go right now. The schools pay, something like $5 a square foot to the Public Building Authority (in some weird arrangement I've never quite understood), and the folks who own the other place want more than twice that.

Obviously, these are the early stages of negotiations but if the knitting people don't come down off their asking price, they can forget it.