COMMERCE - Texas A&M University-Commerce is hoping the success and increasing demand for educational sites in and around the Metroplex will help bring students to Rockwall.
The Texas A&M System Board of Regents this month authorized a more than five-year lease agreement lease agreement with MJM Partners LP for approximately 25,500 square feet of space located at 2610 Observation Trail. The agreement could be extended an additional four years.
“The City of Rockwall has seen substantial growth in recent years and presents a natural extension to the pattern of existing locations for A&M-Commerce,” stated Dr. Dan Jones, president of A&M-Commerce, in a written proposal to the Board of Regents.
The university currently has sites in Corsicana, Midlothian, Dallas and Mesquite.
The Rockwall facility will seek to provide educational programs to the eastern sector of Dallas County and Rockwall County, and be “ideal for the typical commuter student who would be targeted for this campus.”
The base rent will be $12.75 per square foot per year and will escalate 2.5% per year during the initial term of five years and two months. Additionally, A&M-Commerce will pay certain operating expenses (excluding utilities) estimated for the upcoming year at $3.80 per square foot. Construction of necessary classroom-specific tenant improvements will be paid for by the university.
“The total annual rental will be paid from program delivery fees and designated tuition,” the letter stated.
U.S. Congressman Ralph Hall offered his support for the facility in a letter to the A&M System Board of Regents dated July 31:
“As a United States Congressman, whose wife graduated of East Texas State University, and a Rockwall resident, I can honestly speak to the quality of this partnership which is our future. The people and businesses in the growing Rockwall area along with myself strongly support and welcome the nationally known education system of Texas A&M Commerce to Rockwall.”
Hall added he looks forward to attending the grand opening of the new facility.
The Rockwall decision was one of two agenda items brought before Regents by A&M-Commerce on August 3. The other being a request to name the university's current science facility the Keith D. McFarland Science Building. Dr. McFarland, now acting president at Texas A&M-Texarkana, retired in 2008. The Science Building was completed in 2006. A formal naming ceremony is being planned.
