Sunday, August 29, 2021

As you are well aware (I hope), we as a parish have embarked on a great adventure to greatly upgrade our physical facilities for our school, our gym, our church offices, our ministry space, and our rectory. We are replacing everything except the church.

The engine for this is a long-term (99-year) ground lease with a developer, Greystar, who will construct a 30-story building on our property west of the alley. We will have a new 5-story building for our school, our ministry spaces and our parish offices to the east of the alley. The new gym and rectory will be a condo arrangement in the developer’s building of student housing.

We have now moved out of the old school, the church offices and the rectory. However, as I write this, we do NOT have a signed agreement with the developer.  Since all the parish property is owned by the Diocese of Austin, only Bishop Joe Vásquez can sign the development agreement. The lawyers are working hard to have this all ready for his signature on September 1, or thereabouts. It may even have occurred by the time you read this. Needless to say, it is a little nerve-wracking, since we have moved out of our old facilities, but do not yet have a firm development agreement.

This weekend, on Saturday we say a fond farewell to the buildings that have served us for many generations. Many memories have soaked into those walls. This coming Monday, August 30, we will permit the dis-assembly of our courtyard, allowing parishioners to take bricks that have significance for them, and some of the plants in the courtyard.

We fully anticipate that as of Wednesday, September 1, we will no longer have access to the school, blacktop, gym, Newman Hall, Hecker Hall, the Holy Family Room, the rectory or the courtyard, and that it will be converted into a construction site. Since there is much work to be done with re-routing utility lines (that is what the construction on 21st Street at the corner of Guadalupe Street is already about) and soil testing, and other prep, actual demolition will not occur till after Thanksgiving.

For a taste of what we have planned as new structures, please join us on Sunday, Sept. 19 at 1:00 p.m. in the church, as we host one of the lead architects on this project who will give us a virtual “fly through” of the campus and the new buildings.

Please keep our project and Parish/School Staff in your prayers during this exciting (and crazy) time. I especially recommend to you our Prayer for our Pilgrimage. 
 
God bless!