In December, the district announced the acquisition of a building for the facility off W. Hwy. 29. The site previously belonged to Higginbotham Brothers, a hardware store that closed in June, according to previous reporting by Community Impact.
The big picture
The facility will include office space and a warehouse for the district’s maintenance and operations staff, including storage for equipment and supplies, Superintendent Snell told Community Impact.
Additionally, the property will become the headquarters for LHISD’s police department. The facility will serve as a centralized location for the police chief, who is currently located at Liberty Hill High School, and provide spaces for storage, record-keeping, police training and debriefing, Snell said.
The newly acquired 27,000-square-foot site features:
- 10,300 square feet of conditioned space
- 4,400 square feet of unconditioned space
- A 3,300-square-foot covered porch
- 9,000 square feet of additional covered storage space
Voters approved $12 million for LHISD to design and construct the facility in the district’s 2023 bond election. The district initially planned to open a new maintenance warehouse next to its future transportation facility off US 183, Snell said.
After Higginbotham Brothers closed, Snell said he reached out to the company about purchasing the building. The district purchased the property for $3.6 million following negotiations and expects to spend $2 million on upgrades to the building, according to district information.
The district will add restrooms, office spaces, storage racks, a training room, storage areas and a loading dock to the property, Snell said.
The property acquisition will allow LHISD to have more than twice the amount of storage than it previously expected and to save $6 million from initial cost estimates, according to district information. The district will use the bond savings to ensure the completion of its remaining bond projects, Snell said.
The impact
The district’s current maintenance warehouse is located in an about 2,500-square-foot building behind Liberty Hill Elementary, Snell said. The building, which LHISD will continue to use, was built decades ago when the district had around 1,500 students, he said.
The new facility will provide LHISD more storage as its enrollment of around 9,000 students continues to grow.
“We simply don’t have enough storage right now, so we’ll be able to have a centralized location for packages, deliveries, mail and storage,” Snell said.
Stay tuned
The new maintenance warehouse facility is expected to open in August.
