Old Paso Robles boys’ school has new owners. What are their plans for the property?
The long-vacant Paso Robles boys’ school is finally getting new owners — and they plan to turn the empty fields and rusting facilities into a business hub with industrial, office, retail and hotel space.
Majestic Realty, a Southern California-based real estate company, purchased the state-owned juvenile facility on Airport Road in February. The company is currently under contract for the property and hopes to close escrow in six months, said Taylor Talt, Majestic senior vice president.
The California Department of General Services put the 160-acre property — formally known as the El Paso de Robles Correctional Facility or the Estrella Correctional Facility — up for sale to private bidders in December after city efforts to buy the site failed.
Real estate company plans to transform boys’ school
The juvenile facility closed in 2008 and has since remained vacant. The state has been paying at least $700,000 per year to maintain the property, which needs more than $70 million in repairs.
Motorists traveling in the area can see decaying dormitories and overgrown sports fields as they drive down Airport Road.
But Majestic wants to completely renovate the community eyesore and turn it into a business hub on the east end of the city. The flat property, local job market and access to major roadways made the state site attractive to developers, Tate said.
The company hasn’t decided whether it will tear down all the buildings or possibly reuse some.
Tate said his company is looking to develop about 1.5 million square feet into industrial, retail and hotel space. He said he sees potential for the site to become a “smaller industrial makerspace, Tin City” destination with office space, retail, entertainment and hotels.
“And then there’ll be a lot of, you know, the winery industry,” Tate said. “We want them to be a big component to the overall kind of theme of our development. And so you’ll see from our master plan, not only do we have the kind of Tin City, makerspace development. We also have ... a winery potential showroom where different vineyards could come and have their space for wine tasting.”
New owner still securing tenants
Majestic does not currently have any tenants, Tate said.
He did not talk specifically about the types of tenants Majestic is pursuing, other than noting the company works with a variety of Fortune 500 clients.
Talk in the community has included rumors that an Amazon facility could be among the uses, but Tate said the company has no tenants signed yet.
“The industrial facility that we’ve designed this for is for any number of Fortune 500 companies that are in our portfolio,” Tate said. “We don’t have a deal in place with any of them. But as we go through the master plan design and studies, we’ll have marketing decks that we’ll be able to present all of our clients.”
The company is working with city staff to complete an environmental impact report and conduct other studies on the property, a process that will take months, Talt said.
Majestic will present preliminary plans to the city Planning Commission in a couple of weeks, and the City Council after that.
Warren Frace, community development director, called the redevelopment “a transformational project” that could bring jobs to Paso Robles, as well as revenue in the form of property, sales and hotel tax dollars.
It will also bring road user fee money that will help the city improve Airport Road and continue to improve surrounding infrastructure, he said.
“It seems like it’s one of those projects that has potential to add a lot of nice things to the community,” Frace said.
