University officials discuss potential campus expansion

The University of Texas System Board of Regents granted UTRGV authorization Feb. 20 to begin negotiating the purchase of three tracts of land across the Rio Grande Valley for potential campus expansion.

Patrick Gonzales, vice president of University Marketing and Communications, said the authorization allows the university to enter the “exploration” stage of the purchase process. 

“What this did was give us authorization to enter negotiations with the owners of these [properties] and to see if it is something that we truly want to purchase,” Gonzales said.

Once the price of the land is agreed upon, the university will need to seek approval from the UT System Board of Regents again to proceed with the purchase.

In Harlingen, the university is seeking to begin negotiations on 1.05 acres of land, located at 1601 Treasure Hills Blvd. next to the UTRGV Clinical Education Building.

Gonzales said the location could potentially be used for the future expansion of the School of Podiatric Medicine. 

He added the potential purchase of the 7.22 acres located at 1100 N. McColl Road in McAllen would allow UTRGV to expand its foothold in the area.

The 7.22 acres are located between the McAllen Collegiate Academy and the University of Texas Health RGV Cancer and Surgery Center, which is supposed to go “online” later this year, according to Gonzales.

“Wherever we have preexisting facilities, we’re always looking at contiguous parcels of land nearby that will allow for easy expansion,” he said. “So, we don’t know what we’re going to do with that land yet, but we do know that it’s right by the other facilities that we own … in the same area so, you know, it’ll be good for future expansion when needed.”

In Edinburg, UTRGV is seeking to potentially purchase 26.24 acres of land from IDEA Public Schools. The land is located east of the Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium.

University President Guy Bailey said the property is across the street from the UTRGV Edinburg CISD Collegiate High School and the UTRGV Community Engagement & Student Success Building; however, there are still no plans for it.

“Any time you have the opportunity to acquire land … that is contiguous to one of your facilities, you do it,” Bailey said. “You always need future expansion, and really our space on both the Brownsville and the Edinburg campus is very tight now. And so, we’re always looking for opportunities. We might not use that land for five years, even 10 years, but you need to have it for future expansion.”

Gonzales said as UTRGV continues to add more programs and see increases in enrollment, it needs to expand.

“When you talk about longterm growth, [it] is looking at those opportunities to expand our footprint across the Rio Grande Valley to meet the needs of our new programs and our increasing enrollment,” he said.  

—Pete Mendoza contributed to this report.