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After years of searching for new office space, the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) is expanding its operations to the former CVS location at 1105 Myrtle Avenue in Eureka, just one block away from the agency’s headquarters. 

Escrow for the sale of the property is expected to close on Oct. 31.

Once the property is secured, HCOE’s architect will get to work on the designs for new offices and meeting rooms, as well as some repairs to the roof and minor improvements to the building’s exterior. If everything goes according to plan, the site should be ready for staff in the next two years.

“Right now, it’s just an empty box, but it’s going to be a really beautiful space,” said Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools Michael Davies-Hughes. “We’ve been looking for a new space for about three years, but have been unsuccessful in finding a property that meets our office needs, including parking for our 80 to 90 staff.”

The Franklin Campus, located behind the Burre Center, has served as HCOE’s primary headquarters for many decades. A few years back, HCOE began renting office space at two locations on E and H streets to accommodate its rapidly expanding staff. Those combined leases cost the district approximately $20,000 per month, according to Davies-Hughes.

“If you think about that, over the course of the year, that’s almost a quarter of a million dollars that we’re not investing and not getting any equity on,” he said. “We’ve been here since 1853… and we intend to be here for a very long time in the future, so it’s not going to be too long before we actually see cost savings. As responsible stewards of public funds, we want to try to make sure that we’re building for the future of HCOE.”

Davies-Hughes could not confirm the final sale price of the two-acre property since escrow hasn’t closed, but he did note that the asking price from CVS Pharmacy Inc. was $2.6 million. The funds will come from the agency’s general fund.

Once staff are moved into the new offices, HCOE plans to reconfigure its main campus to bring on more student-focused services and programming. 

“This will enable us to move some of the office staff that we have [at the Franklin Campus] over to the CVS site and actually open up some classroom space for some additional student programs and expand the career and technical education opportunities that students have,” Davies-Hughes said. “I think it’ll provide some efficiencies for our organization so that we can provide students and staff at Humboldt County schools with more effective services.”

Hat tip to Sage Alexander at the Times-Standard, who first reported this story on Thursday.