A STANDOFF TO BUY HISD’S LAW ENFORCEMENT HS CAMPUS 
The 11-acre parcel for sale in Magnolia Grove where the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice stands has been the object of some poker-faced one-upmanship between two interested contenders: In one corner, you’ve got St. Thomas High School, whose campus is immediately south of here, and in the other you’ve got AV Dickson Street, a recently formed LLC named for the street the HISD magnet school stands on. The first round, reports the Leader’s Charlotte Aguilar, yielded a $40 million offer from little-known AV Dickson, with St. Thomas countering and raising it by $100. The next round will go off early next week. Aguilar adds that whoever buys the campus will be required to lease it back to HISD for the next 5 years, while a new spot is sought: “In keeping with a move by HISD to relocate its specialty high schools close to beneficial community resources –– the DeBakey High School for the Health Professions to the Texas Medical Center, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts to the Theater District downtown –– a downtown location near police and sheriff’s headquarters and courthouses is being scouted.” [The Leader] Photo: HISD
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I sincerely hope that HISD isn’t so incredibly dense (or crooked) to think that a $40,000,100 offer from a TAX FREE entity like St. Thomas High School is ANYWHERE near as valuable as a $40,000,000 offer from a private developer.
A sale to St. Thomas takes this $40 million property off the tax rolls FOREVER.
A sale to a developer means a $40 million piece of dirt may become a $200 million development. The new owners of this as-redeveloped property will be paying $5 million in property taxes EACH AND EVERY YEAR, with more than half going directly to HISD.
Surely HISD can see the value of this future in come stream, right?
@Bernard
“So by forgoing the immediate greater sum of money, you can actually make MORE money over time…? This does not compute.”
— J.G. Wentworth
This school is a waste; I used to live down the street from there on Feagan. It’s a ton of gangish thuggish kids (confirmed by the rampant gang tagging seen around the campus), and these winners are somehow supposed to be future law enforcement?!?! I shudder to think what the future holds for us in terms of law enforcement if this is the caliber of people we want to be law enforcement officials.
I smell Moody-Rambin prowling in the
neighborhood . . . they can write the check
with the $$$ they made off the Wal-Mart
development . . . personally I’d rather see
one of Htown’s premier high schools have
room to expand and prosper.
AV Dickson Street LLC is controlled by Alison Malkhassian and Alison is a principal in Alara Ventures, hence the AV. Alara Ventures is a company comprised of Alison and her husband, specialing in the investment of multi-family properties.
@cm: Who do you think would want to join America’s largest street gang?
@Bernard i couldnt of said it any better. Nice try St. Thomas.
“Sympathy for the Devil” seems appropriate to this comment thread in so many ways.
Bernard, How would one facter in the NPV of all of the future potential students income taxes from today until infinity?
I agree with your statement but there are many many other things to consider. Another 1,000 units of shoddy apartments isnt exactly what they site needs in my opinion.
Maybe a JV is inorder. 4 storys Apts over, ground floor retail, second story school, with a tennis court on the roof.
It looks like St. Thomas is the high bidder and the developer is low.
Also, what is to say that the developer is not going to put non profit school their for his own private charity? This looks suspicious.
Should HISD consider future property tax revenue as a part of this deal? What if the developer changes its mind and sells the property to someone that wants to build a church or some other tax exempt entity on the property? It could happen and that’s why future property tax revenue should not be a consideration. Lets see who wins.