FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2003
CONTACT: Kay Hendricks, ACCD Coordinator of Communication
210.208.8006
ACCD Purchases Land for New College
At a press conference today, the Alamo Community College District (ACCD) announced that it has agreed to purchase a
238.6-acre property from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC) to be the location of the
ACCD's fifth and newest community college. The property is located in the communities of Live Oak and Universal City, in
the northeast quadrant of Bexar county. It is bounded by Palisades Drive to the north, the NE Loop 1604 access road to the
east, Kitty Hawk Road to the south and abuts the Live Oak Municipal Park on the west.
The property is part of a bequest of
land and financial assets from the late Mrs. Berneice Castella for the unrestricted use of the UTHSC. To honor desires that
Mrs. Castella had verbally expressed, the proceeds from this sale will be used for research on the aging process.
The
purchase price for the property is $3.244 million. The site was recommended to the ACCD Board by the Northeast Campus Task
Force committee, chaired by ACCD District 9 Trustee Jim Rindfuss. "This site was selected because its location is almost
at the center point of the area indicated by our demographic study as the central locus for population growth in the
northeast quadrant," said Rindfuss. "It also was selected because it is one of the few tracts in this area with sufficient
acreage to accommodate a community college and its future growth. A third reason we selected this site was that the
proceeds of the sale will go toward research affecting diseases related to aging," he added.
"I am pleased to be here to
witness a beginning with such promise," said ACCD Interim Chancellor Dr. J. Parker Chesson, Jr. "I congratulate our Board,
the citizens of the northeast community, the University of Texas System Board of Regents and the University of Texas Health
Science Center at San Antonio and everyone involved in making this endeavor possible," Chesson added.
"We are so pleased
to see this land being used to bring more higher educational opportunities to San Antonio," said James D. Kazen, UTHSC
executive vice president for administration. "The proceeds will provide an important source of funding for research at the
Health Science Center, and future generations of South Texas students will benefit for generations to come as they are
educated at the new college which will be located at this site."
The process of developing a master plan for the new college will begin shortly after the ACCD and UTHSC close on the
transaction. This is expected to take place by the end of August 2003.