Negotiations fall through to have classrooms at former
Fortino’s; college may build on its Fairview Road land to fill
enrollment needs in interim
Unable to come to terms on a deal to offer more classroom space
in downtown Hollister or at the former Fortino’s building on Tres
Pinos Road, Gavilan College officials are now pursuing a plan to
build temporary classrooms at the site of the college’s planned
80-acre campus.
Negotiations fall through to have classrooms at former Fortino’s; college may build on its Fairview Road land to fill enrollment needs in interim
Unable to come to terms on a deal to offer more classroom space in downtown Hollister or at the former Fortino’s building on Tres Pinos Road, Gavilan College officials are now pursuing a plan to build temporary classrooms at the site of the college’s planned 80-acre campus.
The college had been seeking a 20,000-square-foot site in Hollister to accommodate burgeoning demand and to reach the goal of serving 500 full-time-equivalent students in San Benito County, which will open up funding for the planned permanent campus at the intersection of Airline Highway and Fairview Road, across from Ridgemark Golf and Country Club.
Gavilan for months has been in negotiations with K&S Properties about leasing and refurbishing either the former Pinnacle building at the corner of Fourth and San Benito streets in downtown Hollister or the vacant Fortino’s building near Kmart. City officials and property owner John Klauer advocated for the renovation of the downtown site, which is across the street from the Briggs Building parking structure, where Gavilan offers approximately 75 class sections to nearly 1,000 students.
When renovation costs were deemed too high, college officials turned their attention to the Fortino’s site, which features nearly 28,000 square feet of space. According to documents from Gavilan’s Facilities Development and Utilization Committee, K&S was looking for a long-term lease of 10 to 15 years and would have upgraded the current dirt area near the property to add additional parking. Gavilan asked for a traffic light to be installed near the property to ease travel in and out of the Hollister Shopping Center, where the property is located.
The report added that, “Indications are that to retrofit [the building to meet state education codes] may be cost prohibitive,” so officials turned their attention to the land they already own – a rural parcel off Airline Highway.
“We’ve already acquired that property and we’re working to obtain the habitat permit” that would include mitigation measures for any impact development may have on wildlife in the area, said Steven Kinsella, Gavilan College’s president. “We have to bring in water and sewer and develop enough infrastructure capacity to handle at least what we’re envisioning to be the first phase of modular facilities. By doing that, we have a chance to take advantage of the land we own and we won’t have to locate other rented facilities, which has proven to be a problem.”
Citing an “extraordinary demand for services,” the additional classroom space is the next step in the college’s goal of serving an additional 500 students locally, which would make Gavilan eligible for funding for the planned permanent campus, expected to be built out over the next 20 to 30 years.
“We do know this is temporary,” Kinsella said. “We still have a need on a long-term basis for additional instructional facilities. We are going to pursue that to the extent that we can, but we cannot afford the construction of permanent buildings. We have to use the modular, pre-manufactured facilities in order to work with the money we have,” approximately $5 million.
Plans are still in the works, but Kinsella said the temporary classroom site would include “as many classrooms and labs as we can” along with a small administrative support building.
“We have to generate 500 FTE students out of that facility,” he said. “That will make us eligible for the permanent funding we need. Once we get our footprint in place, we go back to the state for more funding.”
Gavilan’s Briggs Building lease with the city of Hollister ends in June 2011, and Kinsella said, “We are not going to be out of there before the lease is up.”
With the environmental impact report finished and approved at the Fairview Road site, state and federal sign-off on habitat mitigations are the main hurdles to building there.
Kinsella said that expanded classrooms at the site would be in place “within a couple of years.”
“We don’t want to be out there with a facility that we don’t have money to operate,” he said. “We don’t want to be out there too soon. We’re jockeying back and forth guessing about the state’s economic situation and we will align our actions to be ready when that shifts.”
