Galveston ISD considering housing project

GALVESTON — Galveston ISD will negotiate with an affordable housing developer to lease one of its school properties to build a mixed-income housing complex. The development would help fulfill the city’s legal obligation to rebuild hundreds of units of public housing lost to Hurricane Ike over a decade ago.

The school board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to start discussions with St. Louisbased McCormack Baron Salazar to lease the Alamo campus property in central Galveston.

Tony Brown, the board president, said the initial proposal calls for the district to lease the 9.2-acre property to the developer for an undefined number of years. Brown said preliminary discussions have mentioned the possibility of a 140-unit apartment complex on the property, with two-thirds subsidized for low-income residents.

But Louis Bernardy, senior vice president and director of development in Texas for McCormack Baron Salazar, said it would be premature to put a specific number of units on the proposed project.

“We want to make sure we go through a transparent community engagement process, do our studies on the site, look at different models consistent with developments that we’ve complet

ed previously on the island, and get a clear understanding of that architecture,” Bernardy said.

The Art Deco Alamo school building, which sits on four city blocks between 51st and 53rd Streets at Avenue N ½, was built in the 1930s and used as an elementary school until it was shuttered in 2007. The building, which once held up to 600 students, was converted to a multipurpose center in 2008 and now houses a disciplinary alternative education program with 100 students.

“It’s no secret that post-Hurricane Ike, the district had a decline in enrollment, and as a result, we do have some excess facilities,” Brown said. “(The Alamo campus) met the developer’s size requirements to be able to put in enough units to do one of their typical projects.”

Bernardy added that the initial proposal would be to preserve the existing school building while incorporating management office space and amenities for the new housing adjacent to the school building, as well as possibly an early childhood education center and space for other nonprofit organizations.

McCormack Baron Salazar redeveloped the former Magnolia Homes and Cedar Terrace public housing projects, destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008, into two mixed-income developments on the island. Of the 260 units in those two complexes, Cedars at Carver Park and Villas on the Strand, 145 are reserved for public housing residents.

Brown, a former Galveston Housing Authority board member, said he was initially skeptical that the two developments would be successful when they opened in 2017. They are now 99 percent occupied with few police calls.

“I felt good opening discussions with (McCormack Baron Salazar) based on what I learned,” Brown said.

Still, fewer than half of Galveston’s 569 public housing units have been rebuilt since Ike laid waste to the island in 2008. The city is required by state and federal mandate to rebuild every unit, but construction has been delayed for numerous reasons, from a lack of capital to limited land options and public resistance to building public housing on the island.

The Texas General Land Office has earmarked $66 million for another 287 scattered-site units, but those homes will be built under a different arrangement, with the Galveston Housing Authority owning and maintaining them indefinitely. That money must be spent by the end of 2019, or the island risks losing the ability to fully restore its public housing.

With the deadline looming, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recommended in March that the housing authority submit proposals to redevelop the site of the former Oleander Homes on 53rd Street and Broadway into a mixed-income development.

Bernardy said the memorandum of understanding with the school district allows McCormack Baron Salazar to pursue both the Alamo and Oleander site simultaneously, and the housing authority would continue to be a partner in managing and operating these sites. The housing authority did not respond to a request for comment.

At the Galveston school board meeting Wednesday, Brown said that the lease would generate annual revenue, and any additional net income could be split between McCormack Baron Salazar and the school district.

Brown added that McCormack Baron Salazar is amenable to designating some of the apartments for Galveston ISD teachers and staff and city employees.

“It’s an opportunity for a win to serve our people, put the property in a place where it can provide income to us at a time when we can use it, and also to help our teachers and staff find affordable housing here within 10 minutes of work, instead of having to drive 30 minutes or more across the causeway,” Brown said.

If an agreement is reached, there will be multiple opportunities for public comment, Brown said.

Kelli Moulton, the Galveston ISD superintendent, noted that a provision of the Texas Education Code requires any school district that offers surplus property for sale or lease to make it available to open enrollment charter schools before proceeding.

“It does not preclude that we would take (the housing) offer, but we must consider (charter school) offers first,” Moulton said.