School district to buy former Dixie Tech buildings for $3.3 million

Buildings that formerly housed Dixie Applied Technology College are being sold by the City of St. George to Washington County School District, St. George, Utah, Nov. 17, 2017 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Citing a need for more district-level operating space, Washington County School District has agreed to buy the former home of Dixie Applied Technology College from St. George City for $3.3 million.

The school board unanimously approved the purchase at its regular meeting Tuesday.

“We’re getting a great deal on the property,” school district Business Administrator Brent Bills said at the meeting.

Bills said the purchase price equates to about $100 per square foot for the 33,000-square foot facility, comprised of multiple adjacent buildings on the south side of Silicon Way, on the west side of Dixie Drive.

Buildings that formerly housed Dixie Applied Technology College are being sold by the City of St. George to Washington County School District, St. George, Utah, Nov. 17, 2017 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News

Earlier this year, DXATC, now known as Dixie Technical College or simply Dixie Tech, moved its main campus into a new building on Tech Ridge Drive on the Ridge Top Complex.

Washington County School District Board President David Stirland noted the buildings are still relatively new and “have a lot of potential.”

The school district plans to move several programs and services into the newly purchased buildings as early as next summer. Among them are the district print shop and media center, the Washington County Online School classrooms and several smaller training rooms currently located inside the Woodward building adjacent to the district office on Tabernacle Street.

The new facility will also enable the district to conduct professional development and in-service training sessions on a much larger scale, officials said.

Once those various programs move out of the Woodward building, school officials said the historic school may then in turn become the new home of Southwest Adult High School, which is currently operating out of a smaller renovated house downtown.

“The cost of the facility is well below current construction costs for a similar building,” Washington County School District Director of Communications Steven Dunham said. “We could not afford to do this if the city was not willing and needing to sell it quickly.”

“It is really a deal of a lifetime for us,” Dunham added. “We will need to do some minor remodeling but it currently has much of what we need.”

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

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