Hillview Community Center looks like a better LASD 10th site alternative when compared to Raynor Activity Center in Sunnyvale. Raynor is a non-starter.
Consideration of Raynor in Sunnyvale as a 10th site makes Hillview in Los Altos look like a bargain. A helpful reader, David Roode, found a City of Sunnyvale document about the RFP for Raynor. This post is an UPDATE to “LASD still plans to send BCS to Sunnyvale” and corrects and expands on that post. It seems that the Raynor RFP is for a “long term master lease of Raynor Activity Center which consists of eight building totaling 33, 728 square feet plus four acres of landscaping.” It does not include the park, aka any green areas. So the site is not 10 acres as originally estimated, but is rather under 5 acres.
The Raynor Activity Center is under 5 acres, and does not include any of the green areas originally reported. Yellow is the Activity Center. The red rectangle was our original understanding of the site available for lease. Now we understand that Sunnyvale is not leasing the any part of the park.
Raynor a Lease Not a Sale
The City of Sunnyvale purchased the Raynor Elementary School from the Santa Clara Unified School District for $1.8 million in June 1979. Today the buildings are in need of repair or replacement and that is the motivation for seeking a new long-term tenant. The Sunnyvale City engineer “estimates the cost to replace or renovate Raynor to be between $8.4 to $9.9 million. [Lalahpolitico: Probably more.] Sunnyvale does not want to invest in this. It is looking for an entity that does. But it is not for sale.
“The goal of the RFP process would be to solicit proposals from one or more master tenants who would construct all needed capital improvements provide operational maintenance of the facility and supply all furniture fixtures and equipment required for the provision of services throughout the lease period.”
GOTCHAS
Not Really Long Term
“The city [of Sunnyvale] reserves the right to review all long-term uses on an annual basis and not renew such uses within 90 days notice if there is a higher priority use in accordance with this policy presented for the use of the facilities.” [Lalahpolitico: Who would invest 10 to 20M in upgrades without the assurance of a real long-term lease?]
But the Primary Goal of BCS and LASD is to serve LA-LAH-MV residents
“Future use at the Raynor activity center should serve Sunnyvale resident’s as a primary goal.” We understand the City of Sunnyvale prefers that the new master tenant be willing to sublease to the popular current tenants!!! So LASD should spend $10M and then be able to use only half the space?
The buildings have less space than LASD Oak and no facilities for junior high. The baseball diamonds are not included as we originally understood the situation. Yellow delineates what is the 4-5 acre site for lease.
Low Rent Paid by LASD
Sunnyvale in 2011 was collecting $140,000 in lease revenues and had $60,000 in maintenance costs. But the space was about half occupied, because the rest is not suitable for occupancy. Lalahpolitico estimates the lease payments for a Master tenant to occupy all the space, one which is able to take on all the repairs, could be in in the $200,000 range. The annual rent on 30 portables at Egan is estimated at $150,000.
The Shoe is too tight
The entire site is 14.6 acres, but the part for “long term lease” is less than 5 acres with 33,728 sq. feet of buildings on it. Los Altos School District’s Oak Elementary School has more buildings at 39,000 sq. feet, and it has only 480 students compared to BCS’s projected 650/900.
Lalahpolitico Bottom Line: A Hillview Comparable…
Kudos to the Los Altos School District real estate team for coming up with a comp to Hillview. Too bad Hillview is not for lease though. If LASD could lease all of Hillview for $200,000 or so and undertake all the $10M to $20M renovations there, at least it is in-district! It’s probably too small to fit BCS now though. Nonetheless, let’s invest locally, not for Sunnyvale.
Raynor Activity Center in Sunnyvale is on less land than Hillview and also needs $10 to $20 million in renovation and repairs. Lalahpolitico does not approve of investing local tax dollars out of the community.
