Cunningham House, the scout and guide headquarters in Murray’s Road in Douglas is to be sold.
A spokesman for the Scouts’ Association said the property, jointly owned by the scouts and guides, was no longer fit for purpose.
The two adjoining terraced houses currently house a shop which sells scout and guide uniforms and other equipment and the property is also used for training sessions and for storing equipment.
But a lack of parking nearby and increasing maintenance costs on the buildings, which are more than 100 years old, mean a decision has been made to sell.
The island’s scout commissioner Guy Thompson said the scouts and guides’ associations would each take a share of the sale proceeds but a decision had yet to be made on precisely how the money would be used.
The property and any proceeds are part of the Cunningham Trust, which governs how the money is used, but Mr Thompson said it was possible it may be invested in a more suitable property at a later date.
The Cunningham Trust started during the Second World War when Willie Cunningham (of Cunningham’s holiday camp) bought a property at 44 Circular Road to be used as the scout and guide headquarters. He and his wife were the scout and guide island commissioners at the time. In 1954, the headquarters relocated to The Hermitage on Peel Road and later, in the early 1970s, a purpose-built scout and guide headquarters was constructed opposite St Ninian’s School. Until this was ready, a temporary headquarters was used at 5 Mount Pleasant.
The new Cunningham House at St Ninian’s was completed in 1977 and the scouts and guides used it for around 15 years until rising costs persuaded the association to sell it. The building is now St Andrew’s Church.
The premises at Murray’s Road have been used since the 1990s as a temporary base.
Mr Thompson said he hoped the shop could be relocated. After the sale, the scouts and guides will no longer share a building,