Strapped College District Weighs Leasing Out Parcel

The Coast Community College District, which recently struck a deal to sell its TV station, hopes to raise more money by leasing its district headquarters site to a developer for construction of an apartment complex.

The Costa Mesa-based district has set a minimum rent of $900,000 annually for the 55-year lease.

Although leasing the land has been discussed previously, the state’s increasingly dire budget picture has spurred Coast to become more aggressive in pursuing revenue. The district recently was placed on a state fiscal watch list because its reserves had dropped to an unacceptably low level.

Jerry Patton, a vice president of Palomar College in San Diego County who heads a group of California Community Colleges chief business officers, said many colleges are in similar circumstances. But few community colleges have the excess land to turn into revenue, he said. The district is freeing up the land by moving its offices to the campus of Orange Coast College, one of the three colleges that make up the district.

Coast Community College District Trustee Paul Berger said the money could used to restore some classes that have been dropped because of budget cuts.

Erin Cohn, spokeswoman for Coast, said the district has suffered nearly $15 million in state cuts over the last two years, and more reductions are expected. As a result, hundreds of classes were cut this academic year, and 60 professors who retired as a result of an incentive program for faculty were not replaced.

The 13 3/4-acre parcel on Adams Avenue and Pinecreek Drive is home to temporary buildings that make up the district offices. The land reaches nearly to the shops, auto dealers and restaurants on Harbor Boulevard.

Across Adams is Orange Coast College. Nearby are several large apartment complexes, such as the 714-unit Camden Martinique next door.

The deadline for the district to receive proposals is Jan. 21. Trustees will consider them at their Feb. 4 meeting; approval also is needed from the California Community Colleges’ chancellor’s office.

Kevin Parker, an assistant professor of English who heads the academic senate at Orange Coast, said he had mixed feelings about the plan. “Part of me says we’re in the business of education, not being landlords, but then part of me says we have to have some kind of revenue stream,” he said.

This is not the first time district officials have wanted to lease campus land. In the late 1980s, faced with dwindling enrollment and declining state funds, trustees approved a plan to lease the same parcel to a developer who would build 480 apartments. The district was expected to make about $5 million in the first decade of the 66-year lease.

The plan was dropped after objections from the community and the Costa Mesa City Council.

The district also discussed leasing land at Orange Coast and Golden West College for commercial development.

Meanwhile, the district has almost completed the sale of its PBS television station, KOCE-TV Channel 50, to a group of Orange County business leaders, for $28 million. The district will receive $8 million down. The KOCE-TV Foundation will not make any payments for five years. The remaining payments will be made without interest.

Some high school districts have used their land for commercial projects. Five years ago, Huntington Beach Union High School District leased acreage at Warner Avenue and Goldenwest Street to Home Depot for about $500,000 a year, said Patricia Koch, a district spokeswoman.