City hikes program’s monthly payments from $315 to $7,200
The Hollister City Council voted unanimously Monday to increase
the rent of Gavilan Joint Community College’s lease at the
Hollister Municipal Airport from $314.59 per month to 7,163.10 per
month
– 90 percent of the area’s market value.
City hikes program’s monthly payments from $315 to $7,200
The Hollister City Council voted unanimously Monday to increase the rent of Gavilan Joint Community College’s lease at the Hollister Municipal Airport from $314.59 per month to 7,163.10 per month – 90 percent of the area’s market value.
The college has rented the space since 1978. In 1998, its original agreement with the city expired and since then the college has been renting on a month-to-month basis.
The college currently pays a little more than 0.5 cents per square foot, while the market value calls for 41 cents per square foot. The new city proposal asks the school to pay roughly 37 cents per square foot.
Airport Manager Mike Chambless asked the city council to increase the rate to market value after the two sides failed to renew a deal over the past 12 years. Chambless’ proposal would increase the yearly rent fee to more than $92,000. The increased rent is scheduled to go into effect July 1.
The council agreed to give the college 10 percent off of market rate due to a Federal Aviation Administration policy allowing discounts for educational facilities.
“It’ll bring more revenue and with more revenue, it allows me to do more things,” Chambless said.
No one from the college was present at the meeting but in a letter that preceded the meeting, Gavilan College President Steven Kinsella wrote that the college could not pay rent at full market value.
“The college cannot pay $7,959 per month and I am honestly a little surprised that this item would go to the city council without some discussion with the college,” he wrote.
Kinsella didn’t attend the meeting because of family reasons, he said.
The letter also asked for a meeting with the city to “get together to see if there is a chance of entering into a lease agreement that works for the both of us.”
Letters between Kinsella and Chambless in the summer of 2008 discussed a new renting agreement. The city had requested an increase to $2,200 per month. Kinsella came back with an offer of $1,000 the first two years, then $1,250 five more years. The college would also invest $50,000 into the facility over time.
In a response to City Manager Clint Quilter, Kinsella noted how Gavilan was continuing with plans for a new satellite campus in the area, and how increasing the rent at the airport could affect its capacity to fund other Hollister facility projects.
“Paying higher rent at the Airport will reduce the amount of funding available for other Hollister facilities,” he wrote.
After Chambless agreed on the rates in a letter, no action from the Gavilan board was taken.
The city and college also at one point talked about the possibility of moving the aviation mechanics program into a new building at the airport.
“We were in discussion until April 2009 and then it just stopped,” said Jan Bernstein-Chargin, director of public information. “The inclusion of this in the City Council (meeting) was the first we heard of it – it was a surprise.”
The previous negotiations were done in good faith, Chambless said, but they fell by the wayside.
“We were getting to a pretty clear conclusion, but then it lost its priority,” he said.
The college has yet to respond to the hike in rent, but it will present the matter to its school board soon to make a decision, Bernstein-Chargin said.
“We’ve had a long history at the airport and in Hollister and we would like to stay there,” she said.
Gavilan College also rents space at the city’s Briggs Building downtown. It is $11,050 per month, and it is in a space of 9,500 square feet.
