By Tony Cantú
Contributing Writer

The Alamo Heights Independent School District hopes to sell a piece of property near its alternative school – a swath of nearly 92,000 square feet valued at $875,000 – to accommodate street improvements to Jones Maltsberger Road.

District officials recently put out a request for bids on the property at 705 Trafalgar, which is located next to the Robbins campus and a tennis center run by the district.

The district’s director of business and finance, Mike Hagar, confirmed the land is surplus property the district no longer needs.

“The land is on the further northeast corner of our property, and it’s a vacant piece of land,” Hagar said. “It was an elementary school at one time, and the district then leased it out for several years in the late ‘90s. Then we took it over and built the tennis center.”

The 91,910-square-foot plot of land is located on nine acres of district property housing the alternative campus and tennis center, Hagar said. Once bids are received, district board members will decide whether or not to sell the property – perhaps as soon as the next regularly scheduled meeting May 15, he said.

The property has an appraised value of $875,000, Hagar said, adding “We can’t accept any bids beneath that.”

Hagar noted the district has long intended to sell off the acreage, even building the tennis facility in a way that would accommodate purchase of the adjacent acreage by another party. He said the sale of the land would have no adverse impact on the district’s operations at the site.

“The district has no future plans for the property,” Hagar said. “In fact, when we built the tennis center we met with the city, which had an interest in straightening out Jones Maltsberger. There’s been some interest in developing the road, maybe straightening it out.”

He would not reveal specifically who the potential buyers might be, but intimated the city of San Antonio might be the main bidder given the plot’s central role in future reconfiguration of the roadway. Bids from potential buyers are due by May 7, he said.