The bidding war is coming to a close for the Houston Independent School District's High School for Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice campus, which went on the market earlier this summer.
Will HISD select the $42 million bid from St. Thomas High School, the adjacent all-boys Catholic school looking to increase the footprint of its 17-acre campus? Perhaps not, The Leader speculates, since St. Thomas officials aim to charge HISD $225,000 each month over the next five years while the high school finds a new home.
Although the $41,121,411.11 offer from AV Dickson Street, LLC appears to be less on the front end, the investment firm promised to lease back the school to HISD for just $100,000 per month — which could mean a savings of $7.5 million for HISD in the long run.
Plus, as The Leader notes, the sale of the property to a non-educational entity would put the prime 10.9-acre plot back on the tax rolls to funnel an additional $450,000 per year (or more) into the district's coffers.
The group behind AV Dickson Street, which closed on the nearby Bayou Park apartment complex at 4400 Memorial Drive in April, is looking to "create a 26-acre mixed-use luxury retail-office-residential development on the combined properties" over the next decade, according to The Leader.
