What’s happening to old Paso Robles boys’ school? It may finally get a new owner
After more than a decade of sitting empty and unused, the Paso Robles boys’ school property may finally get a new owner this year.
Offers were due on Tuesday for the state-owned former juvenile facility off Airport Road. The California Department of General Services in December opened the 160-acre property to private buyers after the city’s attempts to purchase it fell through.
The city of Paso Robles has proposed a variety of possible uses for the site, including industrial, commercial and even a hotel or open space.
The property — known formally as the El Paso de Robles Correctional Facility or the Estrella Correctional Facility — has been vacant since it closed in 2008.
Paso Robles leaders tried for years to purchase it for city use, but efforts repeatedly failed, due mostly to the extensive bureaucratic red tape involved in buying state property. The city’s last push to buy the boys’ school ended in 2018, past Tribune stories reported.
Now, city officials expect a private buyer to finally take over the site, which is filled with decaying buildings and equipment that have largely remained untouched over the past 13 years.
Preparing the property for purchase
The boys’ school facility is more than 60 years old. It’s made up of at least 42 buildings that are “generally in poor condition overall” and require at least $70.4 million in repairs, the state’s Request for Written Offers report said.
It includes 12 housing buildings, a medical building, two gymnasiums, a pool, an office building, a machine and maintenance building, a kitchen, seven classroom buildings and a chapel/auditorium.
The state has been paying at least $700,000 per year to maintain the empty facility, a 2017 Tribune story said.
A video tour of the boys’ school property uploaded by Paso Robles Mayor Steve Martin to YouTube in 2016 showed much of the facility and its equipment intact but in degrading condition.
Ahead of a potential purchase, the City Council in January hired planning firm Oasis Associates for $45,000 to prepare land use entitlements, environmental reports and other documents and to coordinate outreach efforts related to the redevelopment of the property, a city staff report said.
Project applicants would reimburse the city for the full cost of the contract, the council resolution said.
“Staff has determined the potential reuse of the property has significant economic development benefits to the city and therefore should be expedited,” said Warren Frace, Community Development director, in an email. “The city contracting process takes some time, so it makes sense to start early.”
How would a new owner use the boys’ school property?
The city proposed a “framework plan” that suggests building a 1.5 million-square-foot business and industrial park that repurposes some of the existing buildings, including the brick dormitories.
Potential uses include a distribution warehouse, office and commercial space, open space and a 120-room business hotel, the report said. The existing Cal Fire base on the property would remain.
“The master plan would be consistent with the city’s Airport Master Plan, in substantial conformance with the Airport Land Use Plan for the Paso Robles Municipal Airport, and support and enhance the city’s overall economic strategy and development goals,” the report said.
Those plans differ starkly from past city proposals, which suggested using the property for homeless transitional and farmworker housing and educational and sports facilities, previous Tribune stories reported.
Frace said the city’s plan is a placeholder that could change if a new owner proposes something different.
“The framework plan considers previous land-use concepts, General Plan goals, site constraints, and economic development objectives,” he said. “It is expected the buyer will propose a somewhat different plan that will be subject to a public input process, including the Planning Commission and City Council.”
