West Houston Expansion

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Executive Summary

For over 40 years, west Houston and Katy ISD have been a part of the HCC community, with existing campuses in Spring Branch and Katy. To better serve this area, HCC is relocating its current Katy campus to a 24-acre tract of land at Colonial Parkway and the Grand Parkway, directly across the street from the new University of Houston campus in Katy. Under this unique, co-location partnership students will spend their first two years at HCC and then finish at UH.

Revenue

This project is a revenue generator for HCC’s taxing district; it pays for itself and allows HCC to invest in all of our in-district areas. We must identify new streams of revenue to continue serving those in our local area and this co-location effort will increase revenue by $168M over the term of the outstanding debt, 27 years, with a net cash inflow of nearly $29M. This cash inflow supports in-district areas with additional revenue to be used to support new programs and growth. This model of additional revenue is a proven one with the success of the existing Katy Campus, which has contributed $20M over the last 14 years in addition to an estimated sales value of $ 14M on the balance sheet through land and a building.

Taxes

The revenue from this project will limit the number of tax rate increases for our current taxpayers and keep tuition affordable for in-district students. HCC must continue to serve our community in the fastest growing parts of our system in order to attain the return from the financial investment and student growth of our investment from 40 years ago.

Tuition

This innovative partnership with UH drives rapid growth with a projected 2,000 new students annually by 2022 and over 5,000 new students annually by 2030. With our existing facility in Katy, we cannot meet this growing opportunity to serve the students in West Houston. Since the 2013 Bond Program was for in-district improvements, the Katy Campus did not receive any funding to increase classroom space or improve laboratory facilities and continues to be funded by tuition and state reimbursement.

Obligation

By law, we are expected to serve our local taxing districts and entire service area — these are our communities and students and we are obligated to serve BOTH.

Opportunity

Our current Katy Campus is as diverse as HCC’s already diverse population — 78% are minority students (36% Hispanic; 23% African American; 22% White; and 19% Asian). 90% of Katy ISD graduates enrolled in higher education are attending a university or college other than HCC. There is a huge opportunity for growth with the right program offerings.

Reporting

Similar to past processes, each significant milestone of the project will be brought back to the Board of Trustees for review and approval. Additionally, the College will publish an annual report of the West Houston expansion, pursuant to this prospectus.

Conclusion

In our vision to become the leader in providing high quality, innovative education to the greater Houston area, this strategy creates a framework for building a strong foundation for the educational environment of West Houston, HCC, and the region served by HCC. The economic footprint of the region continues to grow, and as Katy ISD approaches 100,000 enrolled students, it is more important now than ever to relocate the current Katy Campus. This co-location strategy with the University of Houston will allow us to capture economies of scope by utilizing their intellectual property and professors, and also by creating a more robust educational ecosystem for our students. Expanding in West Houston allows HCC to grow enrollment, increase revenues, provide a stronger focus on engineering, nursing and workforce–directed programming, and most importantly, form stronger partnerships with our community.