Might the new owners of a century-old St. Paul house slated for demolition be interested instead in selling the house to nearby Macalester College? Campus officials said they'd like to find out.

Tom Welna, director of Macalester's High Winds Fund, which invests in the neighborhood surrounding the college, said he sent a message Wednesday to Sherelyn Ogden and Allan Thenen to see if they might want to discuss the possibility of selling the house for the price they paid — $475,000 plus closing costs — when they bought it just last week.

The Dutch colonial is at the center of controversy in St. Paul's Tangletown area, where neighbors are upset by the new owners' plans to knock it down, split the double lot it sits on and build two new houses.

Welna said the college's purchase of the house may be a better resolution than attempting to enforce what appears to be Macalester's right of first refusal on the sale, which it secured more than 40 years ago when it sold the house to then-Professor Henry West and his wife, Pat.

That right — which would give the college first dibs on buying the house, or at least making an offer on it — wasn't granted Macalester last week when the Wests sold the property to Ogden and Thenen.

City officials said a demolition permit won't be issued until the right-of-first-refusal matter is resolved.

The new owners closed on the purchase last Thursday after getting preliminary approval from the city to divide the property once the house is torn down and a sidewalk is removed. There was a 10-day period to appeal the lot division, but neighbors said they didn't know about it.

The Macalester-Groveland Community Council learned last month that building contractor David Hovda had applied for a lot split and invited him to a land use committee meeting, but he was unable to attend.

The committee discussed the lot split, but took no action as district councils have no authority to approve or deny a land use permit.

Kevin Duchschere • 651-925-5035