The San Antonio Independent School District is buying three warehouse buildings on 1.4 acres next to the district’s operations center off Interstate 10 in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
The board of trustees two weeks ago approved the purchase price of just over $1 million. The money will come from district reserves, which trustees intend to reimburse from a $1.25 billion bond issue is will ask voters to approve in November.
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The warehouses on Fulton Avenue, owned by Thomas and Barbara Stratil, had been used for commercial purposes, said Willie Burroughs, the school district’s chief operations officer.
SAISD will store textbooks and kitchen equipment and repair music and special education equipment there. A small group of workers will make windows and shades on the site, which also will provide parking for a fleet of facilities and custodial vehicles, Burroughs said.
The equipment and employees have been dispersed around the district since the 2017 sale of a Government Hill site where they had been located. The district sold that property, on North Alamo and Austin streets, for almost $18 million to GrayStreet Partners, which is building a mixed-use development there.
SAISD officials hope to relocate the equipment and personnel to the Fulton Avenue property over the summer, coronavirus restrictions permitting, Burroughs said.
“Depending on the orders we have for the type of activities we’ll be able to do or not do, at the start of the school year, we’ll be able to have some portion of the operation up and running there,” he said.
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SAISD also sold desirable properties in the Lavaca neighborhood two years ago to Silver Ventures, the firm that developed the Pearl complex. The proceeds are funding a new SAISD central office on the former football field at Fox Tech High School, scheduled for completion in April 2021, which will consolidate six buildings now strewn around the large inner-city district.
“The overall distract strategy was to centralize as many departments as possible,” Burroughs said.
Alia Malik covers several school districts and the University of Texas at San Antonio. To read more from Alia, become a subscriber. [email protected] | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN
