GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Campus Work Set to Begin

HOUSTON-The door is now open for construction to begin in the fall on a 300,000-sf administration building for the Houston Independent School District. The final push was the nod to a $38.1-million offer for a 24-acre headquarters campus in the Galleria submarket.

The school board last week approved the lowest of three offers after nearly two months of evaluations showed its net value worked out in the district’s best financial interests. Trammell Crow Co. of Dallas and the Morgan Group of Houston walked away with the right to buy the Richmond Avenue campus, outmaneuvering a $40.1-million offer from the Archon Group of Irving, TX, and $40-million bid from locally based VeriQuest Cos. Inc.

Doug Elliott with the Houston office of CBRE/Trione & Gordon tells GlobeSt.com that the school district was more interested in the “net value” of the total offer than the purchase prices. He says the board considered its rental cost to remain in place until a new administration building is completed plus factored in each offer’s broker fees.Elliott and Phil Arnett, also of CBRE/Trione & Gordon, now are positioned to open negotiations for the sale. The start of talks was decided at a closed-door meeting of the school district’s executive committee.