Courtesy map

Amid disappointment over losing property to the Southwest Research Institute, Northside Independent School District is working with the city to explore other options.

Southwest Research Institute is the city’s choice to be the new inhabitant of 600 Callaghan, a site NSD wanted for an alternative school, communication center and bus transportation center.

“NISD is of course disappointed that we will not receive the Army Reserve Center at 600 Callaghan, but we continue to support the Southwest Research Institute, a fine institution which is a Northside ISD neighbor and great supporter,” NISD Superintendent John Folks said Dec. 13 after losing the bid.

Tempers had flared a week before that when city staff recommended the research facility over the district. The five-acre property, formerly a U.S. Army Reserve Center, is being shut down as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC).

“With all due respect, the staff recommendation was wrong,” Folks said after the staff recommendation.“The scores assigned to Northside are not an honest representation of the District’s quality or its ability to turn the Callaghan Road U.S. Army Reserve Center into a vibrant focal point of the neighborhood that will enrich the lives of this city’s residents.”

However, after the Dec. 13 decision, Folks said City Manager Sheryl Sculley and Deputy City Manager Pat DiGiovanni are helping NISD find another site for the project.

“We can appreciate the City Council’s difficult position of having to choose between two fine institutions,” he said.

Mark Gretchen, interim director of the city’s department of asset management, said the entities are in the embryonic stages of finding another solution.

“We certainly hope that the process will be beneficial to them,” he said.

The Callaghan complex was offered to places that could make a positive economic impact and benefit the surrounding neighborhood. NISD and SRI were the only bidders on the property.

NISD eyed a multiple-use building on the land for the Alternative High School, which currently exists in the form of 14 portable classrooms and needs more room to expand. The campus houses students with disciplinary problems and serves as an alternative to expulsion.

Bob Murdoch, the city’s director of military affairs, listed several reasons why staff recommended SRI over NISD.

In addition to the more than 1,500 ongoing research projects that require an “immediate need” for space, the institute has a $760 million economic impact on the city and already has the needed funds to build on the Callahan location, he said.

With the road improvements to Callahan Road, Murdoch added, the new location would be reunited with SRI’s main campus.

“The bottom line is, they felt the best use of the facility would be by Southwest Research Institute,” Murdoch said.

The city’s recommendation goes to the Army, where it can negotiate with SRI, decline a deal with SRI or put the property up for auction. Traditionally, the Army goes with the community’s recommendation, Murdoch said.