After a couple months of negotiations with the developer tasked with building a career technical education center, the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees is set on Wednesday to decide on buying the land and plans outright.  Should the board, which oversees College of the Canyons, choose to buy the site from Intertex at Wednesday’s special meeting, the district would have to pay approximately $10 million for the property, design documents and government permits and authorizations issued for the development of the project.  Intertex was chosen in May 2023 to build what has been labeled the Advanced Technology Center. The meeting scheduled Wednesday comes more than two months after a letter was sent from the college to Intertex stating the college was canceling the contract.  District staff had determined that the approved cost of roughly $22 million for the facility would not be enough to make it operational for ATC needs, with an additional $16 million necessary to bring it to a grand total of approximately $38 million.  The college’s legal counsel has reviewed the actual costs that Intertex has incurred since the agreement was initially struck and has verified that the cost figure is appropriate, the agenda states.  The $10 million figure includes: nearly $5.5 million for the purchase of the property; $845,000 for the project plans; and $3.7 million for the permits and authorizations.  The initial agreement approved by the board on May 10, 2023, had the district paying Intertex just under $20 million for a “built-to-suit” property at 26650 Valley Center Drive, off of Golden Valley and Soledad Canyon roads. The project was set to be paid for using Measure E funds. Measure E was a $230 million general obligation bond approved by voters in 2016.  But according to Wednesday’s agenda, the $10 million to purchase the land and documents would come from the district’s general fund, and only once a project suitable to be funded through Measure E is chosen to be constructed at that site would those purchase funds be reimbursable. The reimbursement would have to be within 18 months of the expenditure, the agenda states.  Furthermore, the original cost of construction was amended in February, adding $2.3 million to make it $22.125 million. According to the agenda, the board was not provided with the following when the original agreement was approved:  A full breakdown of the scope of the ATC facility that would be delivered to the district for the $19.8 million purchase price.  The extent of additional improvements the district would be required to complete to the ATC facility delivered under the build-to-suit purchase and sale agreement in order to meet programming and operating needs of the ATC.  The total costs the district would incur to complete construction of an operational facility meeting the programming and operational requirements of the ATC.  “The information provided by the then-current district staff in recommending approval of the build-to-suit PSA did not provide the board of trustees with a complete understanding of the magnitude of the improvements and costs the district would be required to incur after the ATC facility was delivered under the build-to-suit PSA and build-to-suit amendment,” the agenda reads.  The project site is currently owned by Intertex as of October 2023, with an assessed property value of approximately $5.2 million. Prior to that, the land was owned by VBC 3 Investors, which is affiliated with Aspen Management, which has offices in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys.  A letter was sent to Intertex on July 3 from Omar Torres, assistant superintendent of instruction, that stated the district was exercising “the right of termination for convenience under section 15 of the agreement.” Torres’ letter said the cancellation would be effective July 5.  According to Eric Harnish, spokesman for the college, the contract was not actually canceled at that time and both parties were reviewing it.   In a phone interview on Tuesday, Harnish said that the college remains committed to building the ATC.  “The ATC is the college’s top facilities priority and we have every intention of moving forward with building the ATC to ensure that students have access to training that leads to careers with local employers,” he said. “This is a strategic pause to engage with local industry leaders as well as college faculty and staff to make sure that we move forward with an ATC facility that will allow us to meet not only current needs but expand and meet future needs.”  Harnish added that the idea is to have the facility be “ideally located to serve students and local employers.”  The board is set on Wednesday to discuss what to do with the project site should it be purchased. According to the agenda, some of the options include: building out the ATC at the site using the current plans; exploring increasing the size of the project to meet industry needs; or finding a new site to build out the project.  No action is scheduled to be taken on Wednesday on the future of the project.  A temporary center is in place at 23606 Diamond Place, off of Centre Pointe Parkway. That center was partially paid for using $1 million in federal funding secured by Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, through a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package passed by Congress, according to a COC news release.     An additional $1 million in federal funding was secured through the $1.7 trillion omnibus package signed by President Joe Biden in December 2022. Garcia and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, along with then-Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, were responsible for getting that funding to help purchase equipment required to provide high-quality training in robotic automation production, according to a COC news release.   Wednesday’s special meeting is set to begin at 5 p.m. at the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center, room 301, located at 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road. To view the meeting virtually, go to tinyurl.com/2vubujba.  The post COC board to consider purchasing tech center land, plans  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.