Title
US Job Corps Property (B)
This item is a request to the City Commission to provide direction to staff on future disposition and potential programming of the US Job Corps property.
Explanation
The US Job Corps property is owned by the United States of America under the auspices of the General Services Administration. It is located at 5301 NE 40th Terrace proximate to the City’s Airport Industrial Park and has been vacant since January, 2019. It is reported that environmental contamination of the site from a neighboring industrial site was a precipitating factor for discontinuing the activities occurring on site.
Job Corps is the largest nationwide residential career training program in the country and has been operating for more than 50 years. The program helps eligible young people ages 16 through 24 complete their high school education, trains them for meaningful careers, and assists them with obtaining employment. Job Corps has trained and educated over two million individuals since 1964.
At Job Corps, students have access to room and board while they learn skills in specific training areas for up to three years. In addition to helping students complete their education, obtain career technical skills and gain employment, Job Corps also provides transitional support services, such as help finding employment, housing, child care, and transportation. Job Corps graduates either enter the workforce or an apprenticeship, go on to higher education, or join the military.
Prior to 1948 the site and surrounding property was occupied and operated by the US Army Alachua Army Airfield and Rifle Range. Subsequently, the property transferred to the City of Gainesville and its Employee Pension Fund and then it was leased and sold to Sperry Rand Corporation (successor is Unisys Corporation) which conducted research, development and manufacture of klystron and traveling wave cathode tubes. Sperry owned the property for a short period of time and then it was subsequently sold to the US Department of Labor in 1978.
A Final Consent Order was entered into in June, 2010 by the City of Gainesville, the US Department of Labor and Unisys Corporation under the auspices of the FDEP in order to resolve a preexisting environmental condition (groundwater contamination) that had been negatively affecting the City’s Airport Industrial Park lying immediately south of the US Job Corps site. The mitigation of this pre-existing environmental condition is nearing completion and natural attenuation.
A tour of the facility was conducted by City staff, representatives of the US Department of Labor, Santa Fe College leadership, and Colliers International in December, 2020. There were initial conversations around collaboratively re-positioning the facility as a job training center under local control.
The property is currently moving through the Federal Government’s property disposition process and that process and its status will be presented to the City Commission.
...Strategic Connection
This item is connected to Goal 1: Equitable Community, Goal 3: A Great Place to Live & Experience, and Goal 4: Resilient Local Economy.
Fiscal Note
The US Job Corps property currently has a 2020 assessed value of roughly $9.5 million dollars.
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Recommendation
The City Commission: 1) hear a brief presentation; 2) provide direction deemed appropriate.