UT System headquarters delayed

$102.4 million plan for 15-story building downtown placed on back burner for now.

In an abrupt and unexpected move, University of Texas System oflcials have decided to “delay and rethink” a $102.4 million plan to build a new headquarters for the system’s stafi in downtown Austin.

Board of Regents Chairman Gene Powell, in a memo to fellow regents Thursday, said construction projects at the system’s various campuses “must take priority over other internally focused capital projects like the proposed new UT System building.”

When the Board of Regents voted unanimously last month to put plans for a new headquarters into motion, oflcials said it would save $2 million to $5 million a year, perhaps more. System employees currently work out of a ffivebuilding complex downtown that requires considerable maintenance.

Consolidating into a new, 15-story building at the northwest corner of West Seventh and Colorado streets would increase eflciency and save on security and other costs, oflcials said.

Powell’s memo seemed to hint at a political calculation in the change of plans. He noted that a top legislative priority for the system is merging UT-Brownsville and UT-Pan American into a new university in the Lower Rio Grande Valley that would also oversee a planned medical school.

“We could not have foreseen the board’s historic decision last week to seek legislative authority for the creation