Edmonton Catholic Schools purchases building for new centralized division office

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Edmonton Catholic Schools has purchased a new building in the city’s east end for a new centralized division office.

The building, known as the 50th Street Atria, located at 9405 50 St., will consolidate six administrative sites into one location and bring more than 300 division employees under one roof.

“We are fulfilling a commitment to find operational efficiencies and financial savings,” said board chairwoman Sandra Palazzo in a news release. “We cannot keep sinking money into repairing and maintaining old buildings that were never intended to be office spaces.”

Currently, the administration team operates out of multiple buildings across the city, including non-operational schools.

By having one centralized space, the school district’s physical footprint will be reduced by 12 per cent.

“By relocating our division office and consolidating administration buildings, we anticipate a savings of at least $1 million per year for the next 10 years. It is money that can be redirected into our classrooms and schools,” said chief superintendent Robert Martin.

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The new centralized site, which is more than 189,000 square feet, will be called the Lumen Christi Catholic Education Centre. Capital reserves will be used to pay for the building, which was purchased for $9.8 million.

The total cost of the project is between $15 million and $17 million, which includes purchase, renovations, relocation, and operating costs during renovations.

On Wednesday, during Edmonton Catholic Schools’ board meeting, administration will recommend approval to sell the current administration sites in order to reduce operations, maintenance and deferred costs while building capital reserves

“We are confident this will help significantly decrease the burden of costs associated with our non-instructional infrastructure,” said Martin. “This is an innovative way to find the dollars that we need to purchase one consolidated building while creating an effective administrative centre that Edmonton Catholic Schools can call home for many years to come.”

The school district plans to operate out of the new building in the fall of this year.

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