lutheran north school on 34th near shepherd announced they are closing at end of year.

question for those that know. its about 257,000 feet of land, what the going rate to purchase? i imagine it will be apartment going in.

Isn't that building fairly new?

not sure, but don't think so.

Granted the schools usually draw non-members, but I think the school is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which is pretty conservative. I know a lot of their churches and schools are struggling to get younger members.

has Waltrip -- just down the road -- improved in recent years?

would have also been competing with St. Pius

htxag09 said:

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Isn't that building fairly new?

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No.

Essentially the same warehouse they turned into a school decades ago. Just put some nice lipstick on the outside to make it look prettier.

The only thing newish is the basketball annex that played a decent part in leading to the decline of the school.

BBRex said:

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Granted the schools usually draw non-members, but I think the school is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which is pretty conservative. I know a lot of their churches and schools are struggling to get younger members.

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There's only 3 left in town that could send junor high graduates. OSL and St. Marks weren't exactly actively sending graduates as they did previously. LN was nothing like it used to be in regards to being aligned with LCMS. Which is part of the reason Memorial started a high school.

Why did the basketball annex play a part in the decline of the school?

I'm not sure I remember the entire story, but they worked a deal to fund the annex in return for an AAU program to be headquartered there. Along the way they started prioritizing that program as enrollment fell some after an administration left / retired including admitting kids who weren't an academical or social fit. Which amplified enrollment dropping. And it spiraled from there including moving away from the LCMS base that could no longer solely support it.

I played basketball there in an adult league 10ish years ago. Had no idea about an AAU team.

that corner of Alba & 34th was a grassy field back in the day

so the first building or oldest building on the site is approximately 45 years old

What was their peak enrollment?

I'm not sure I've ever met more than a few alums. Although, to be fair, most urban high schools, especially privates, were down a little during my high school years.

Also, aside from the inside baseball (or basketball, as it were) info, I would've guessed that the growth of Houston Christian High School might have contributed to declining enrollment at Lutheran North.

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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What was their peak enrollment?

I'm not sure I've ever met more than a few alums. Although, to be fair, most urban high schools, especially privates, were down a little during my high school years.

Also, aside from the inside baseball (or basketball, as it were) info, I would've guessed that the growth of Houston Christian High School might have contributed to declining enrollment at Lutheran North.

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This would be somewhat correct. Peak high school enrollment I want to say was around 350-360.

I want to say it was a little over 400 at one point around the turn of the century.

We started out with like 115 in our freshman class, but graduated around 70.

That is sad to hear. Our kids school plays Lutheran South in all kinds of sports, but I cannot recall playing Lutheran North in anything in a long time. I wonder if declining enrollment dropped them into a smaller TAPPS bracket.

We went through a similar issue with the first school that our kids attended, Clay Road Baptist. It was a nice little K-8 school in a gentrifying part of Spring Branch but it just kept shrinking. When it got to the point that my boys would be the only boys in their grade, and the entire grade would only be six kids, we decided to move them. It was a real shame, because they had some great families and faculty. I don't know exactly what went wrong.

Hopefully they will turn it into bar/restaurant/retail and not put 500 townhomes on that lot.

Whoop Delecto said:

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LNA was down to about 75 students. Land is $20 million

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$18M was the number LEA has been throwing around for the last couple of years. I just don't see it, but who knows.

It's probably the result they've been looking for a while now. They drew so much money away from North over the last couple of decades to fund the current South campus, the flood renovations of the South campus, and then Faith West it seemed the was always trying to get to this point of just closing North and selling the land.

Interesting. That would make sense. The South campus faces a significantly less competitive private school market than North. Not a lot of other options in the broader clear lake, friendswood, league city area. Historically, the public schools have been very good and well attended, so there was not much of a need. I think that has shifted some, particularly at middle school grades, which may drive additional demand to LSA.

I wouldn't be surprised if they look to open a campus on the north or northwest side of town (outside Beltway 8) if they get what they think they will.

It's basically just Northland Christian, Cypress Christian, and John Cooper. With the first 2 being much closer to town than a lot of the growth currently happening around 99.

FYI - Cypress Christian only has one more school year on the Jones Road campus. They have a new campus under construction just outside the Grand Parkway in Bridgeland.

Whoop Delecto said:

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LNA was down to about 75 students. Land is $20 million

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Not too far of a stretch ask price imo off the cuff. Going rate in that stretch for higher density development is probably more $65 psf range (20 M is high $70s PSF).

Depends how it's marketed tbh. Great dirt but buyer pool likely diluted due to lease back and other transaction stipulations likely needed to execute.

Note: I do not know any details on this one. Just high level thoughts. Have sold/am selling several similar sized development sites in similar locations.

Don't think there will be a lease back. Shutting their doors next month.

The problem is the property is on both sides of Alba. They almost have to split it to sell I'd imagine.

AgLA06 said:

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Don't think there will be a lease back. Shutting their doors next month.

The problem is the property is on both sides of Alba. They almost have to split it to sell I'd imagine.

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Got it. Read end of the year and got giddy and went straight to the asset on my parcel app.

Agreed on splitting to maximize. I'd pitch the west part to YMCA in case they needed to pick something up or SCI and sell the main site in a bid process (along with Westside if it couldn't be taken by logical buyers).

And I digress over a way too late if lunch on a Monday…. Carry on.