In exchange for land in the middle of town that a developer wants, Sahuarita Unified School District could gain office space worth up to $1 million.
District officials are working on a deal to trade 3 to 4 acres of land at Rancho Sahuarita Boulevard and West Sahuarita Road to Sharpe and Associates, the company that's building 11,600-home Rancho Sahuarita.
In exchange, Sharpe would add badly needed office space to the district's crowded 6,300-square-foot administration building at 350 W. Sahuarita Road.
The district governing board this month gave Superintendent Jay St. John authority to proceed in drafting a deal.
But many details remain to be ironed out, St. John said. That includes rezoning the property, now zoned for residential development, to allow for commercial use.
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Bob Sharpe, president of Sharpe and Associates, said if the town approves the swap, he expects it will take at least two years before any construction begins.
Sharpe declined to say what he'd build on the property he's seeking, adding that it's too early to talk about those kinds of details.
"We've just begun our conversations," he said.
St. John, who is overseeing negotiations, said the deal will benefit both the district and the company.
The district can't use the land at the northeast quadrant of the intersection, he said, mainly because it's too close to the two busy roadways. Both the district and town are trying to limit the number of driveways that connect with Sahuarita Road, to reduce congestion and improve safety.
On the other hand, that traffic makes it prime commercial property — and it will become more so now that work is under way across the road on the town's municipal complex. Within a few years, a new hospital and medical plaza also will be built in the Town Center south of Sahuarita Road.
State law prohibits school districts from selling property worth more than $50,000 without voter approval, St. John said. But exchanges are allowed as long as the deal is of equal or greater value to the district, he said.
"What we're proposing is an equal-value trade," St. John said.
He said it's similar to a deal that officials with the district and town government worked out about three years ago, when the district swapped about 22 acres of land near Anamax Park to obtain the land where the administration building stands.
The building now is filled to capacity, St. John said.
A district appraisal sets the value of the property now proposed for trade — which is next to other land owned by Sharpe — at about $250,000 per acre, he said.
That appraisal assumes the land is rezoned for commercial use, he said.
Sharpe said he expects the rezoning process could take anywhere from eight to 12 months.
St. John estimates that Sharpe would build about 5,000 square feet of office space in exchange for the commercially zoned land, which would have a total estimated value of between $750,000 to $1 million.
The exact size of the parcel that may eventually be traded has not yet been determined, he said.
John Neunuebel, Sahuarita's planning director, said he's aware of the land-swap proposal, but that town officials have not yet begun official talks with the district.
The land could be rezoned either as a stand-alone action or as a major amendment to the Rancho Sahuarita specific plan, a document that outlines how the developer intends to build the master-planned community, he said.
Sharpe will have to wait until Feb. 1 to request the rezoning as part of a major plan amendment, Neunuebel said.
