City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: DECEMBER 9, 2016
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Worksession with the Alexandria City Public Schools in Regard to their Proposed Purchase of 1701 Beauregard for a New West End Elementary School
BODY
ISSUE: Proposed acquisition, renovation and related financing of 1701 Beauregard for a new West End Elementary School.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council hold a work session on the proposed acquisition of 1701 Beauregard with representatives of the Alexandria City Public Schools.
BACKGROUND: During FY 2016, the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) began searching for a new elementary school site which is necessary due to increasing enrollment trends. The process (upon which the City’s and ACPS’s approved FY 2017 budgets were based) assumed that ACPS would lease existing commercial facilities and then renovate them to serve as an elementary school and a pre-k facility. Some $2.5 million was included in the
FY 2017 ACPS operating budget for part-year lease costs, and some $24.4 million was included in the FY 2017 ACPS CIP for the renovation costs of those leased spaces.
The proposed sources and uses for the 1701 are:
SOURCES USES
CIP Retrofit Budget $23.4 Acquisition $15.0
Lease Budget 2.5 Retrofitting 23.2
ACPS Fund Balance 1.9
ACPS CIP Reallocations 10.5
Total $38.2 Total $38.2
During the competitive selection process that ACPS created to find sites to lease, one of the bidders offered a building for ACPS to acquire. The cost of acquisition was attractive in large part due to the office vacancy rate in non-Metrorail station sites in the City’s West End. The high rate has depressed office building values to far less than replacement cost.
Subsequent to the seller’s offer, ACPS has undertaken due diligence in regard to utilizing 1701 Beauregard (including the adjacent 1705 Beauregard parking garage) as a new elementary school. This included submission of very preliminary concept plans to the City’s Planning and Zoning department and the resulting list of issues to be addressed by ACPS generated by City staff on October 14 (Attachment 2). The City also undertook and completed the land-use 9.06 process (Attachment 3).
ACPS has prepared a set of materials and back up memoranda (Attachment 1) in advance of the December 13 Council Legislative meeting.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. ACPS Memorandum and Presentation of December 8, 2016
2. 1701 & 1705 Beauregard Compiled Concept Comments of October 14, 2016
3. City Charter 9.06 Docket Item approved by the Planning Commission