School district garners $90M in bids for properties

Ten properties the Austin Independent School District recently put up for bid have received offers that would amount to $90 million if the highest bids were accepted for all of them, the Austin-American Statesman reported last week.

The district put up the properties—which include district’s Carruth Administration Center in Clarksville, the Allan Center (formerly Allan Elementary School) in East Austin, downtown Texas historic landmark The Millet House, the Baker Center (formerly Baker Elementary) in Hyde Park, and vacant parcels in north, south, and east Austin—in October.

In addition to traditional purchase and development offers, AISD announced that it was looking for groups interested in developing community opportunities to submit proposals.

This month, the Austin City Council approved an amount not to exceed $2.88 million to bid on properties in hopes of turning them into affordable housing.

According to the Statesman article, other bidders for various parcels include Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, high-profile developers, and nonprofits. While the district did not release the details of the proposals beyond the dollar amount, some organizations made their bids and intentions public, according to newspaper.

Austin Habitat for Humanity, it reported, proposed development of 140 affordable home units on the district’s Service Center Land off 51st Street; it would like at least 20 percent of that housing to be for school district employees.

Similarly, housing nonprofit Foundation Communities, wants to build up to 200 apartments East Austin’s Allan Center (formerly Allan Elementary), the article noted.

Since the district included from the beginning of the process the information that it is especially interested in projects that would help the district and its employees, it might not necessarily accept the highest-dollar bids in all cases.

Here is AISD’s full list of properties, bidders, and amounts of proposals, as published in the Statesman:

Carruth Administration Center (1111 W. 6th St.) — minimum bid $30 million

• Proposal to lease by The John Buck Company of Chicago

• $35 million bid from Presidium Group of Austin

• $27,027,000 bid from Austin businessman Steve Wimberly

• $36.5 million bid from Schlosser Development of Austin

Millett Opera House (the Austin Club, 110 E. 9th St) — minimum bid $5.3 million

• Proposal for a long-term lease from the Foundation for the Preservation of the Historic Millett Opera House

• $1.7 million bid from the Foundation for the Preservation of the Historic Millett Opera House

Baker Center (3908 Avenue B) — minimum bid $10.6 million

• Proposals from the city of Austin, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and WLVH Management LLC of Austin

• $15,105,000 bid from Alliance Residential

• $10,611,000 bid from JCI Residential

• $10,282,000 bid from Sackman Enterprises

• $10,700,000 bid from Marquis Residential

• $10.6 million bid from Alamo Drafthouse

• $11 million and $12 million bids, depending on terms, from Colina West Limited

Central Warehouse (9 acres south of Alpine Road) — minimum bid $2.3 million

• Proposal from the city of Austin

• $2,311,000 bid from JCI Residential

Doris Drive, 1.2 acres — minimum bid $920,000

• $920,000 bid from the city of Austin

Allan Center (4900 Gonzales St.) — minimum bid $12 million

• Proposal from Foundation Communities• $13 million bid from Presidium Group

• $14 million bid from Colina West Limited

Service Center (5101 E. 51st St.) — minimum bid $2.7 million

• Proposals from Austin Habitat for Humanity and RSI Communities of Round Rock

• $4.6 million or $5.5 million bid, depending on terms, from RSI Communities

• $3.15 million bid from Intrepid Equity Investments

• $3,690,403 bid from Milestone Community Builders

• $3,008,000 bid from JCI Residential

Tannehill Lane, 8 acres — minimum bid $1.96 million

• Proposal from DMA Companies

• $2,011,000 from JCI residential

• $1.96 million from the city of Austin

Loyola Lane, 32 acres — minimum bid $7.7 million

• Proposals from Human Excel of Austin and the city of Austin

• $6,323,746 bid from Milestone Community Builders

• $7.2 million or $8.2 million bid, depending on the terms, from RSI Communities

• $7.9 million bid from Eureka Holdings Acquisitions

Travis Country (4806 Trail West Drive) — minimum bid $3.28 million

• Proposals from the city of Austin, Travis Country Community Service Association and the Austin Waldorf School

• $3,405,000 bid from Bonner Carrington

• $1.2 million in two different bids from the Travis Country Community Service Association

• $1,818,025 bid from Milestone Community Builders• $1 million bid from J Vaughn Brock

• Austin district properties fetch up to $90M in bids [AAS]