AVC LOSES ITS LEASE LANDLORD FORCING CAMPUS TO RELOCATE.

Byline: Jim Skeen  Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Antelope Valley College's south valley building debuted with an impressive 1,200 students, but its future use is in doubt, and college officials are eyeing another Palmdale site.

The AVC board is scheduled to meet tonight in closed-door session with a property negotiator to discuss the use of a three-story office building at Palmdale Boulevard and 15th Street East.

The building formerly held an Antelope Valley Hospital clinic and county health worker offices that have since moved to a new clinic at 40th Street East and Palmdale Boulevard.

College officials said they could not discuss why AVC was interested in the building, saying it was a closed-session item and that the board has not had a chance to provide guidance.

The building could serve as a stop-gap measure to allow AVC to continue to serve the south valley region while awaiting resolution on whether the college will have further use of the former aircraft worker recreation center at Avenue P and 30th Street East.

AVC is holding fall classes at the Avenue P building, but its use after this semester is now in doubt after owner SR Technics America canceled a lease agreement with the college.

Citing negotiations with a prospective buyer, SR Technics America exercised a clause in the agreement allowing it to cancel the lease following the fall semester. AVC and SR Technics America had entered a three-year agreement, allowing the college to use the recreation center for $10 a year.

``Everything is up in the air,'' said AVC spokesman Steve Standerfer. ``We are committed to a presence in the south valley. We had 1,200 students there this fall. We've had great success at the south valley site.''

The Avenue P site is part of an aircraft assembly and modification complex that Rockwell used in the 1980s to build the B-1B bomber fleet. More recently, SR Technics America used the complex to modify large jet aircraft.

SR Technics America, however, was forced to look for a buyer for the property after its business collapsed as the result of a downturn in commercial aviation following the Sept. 11 attacks and internal problems with its Swiss corporate backers, SAirGroup.

Calls to SR Technics America were not returned Friday.

During the summer, an SR Technics executive indicated the company had a prospective buyer for the site. The prospective buyer, who was not identified, was aware of the college lease issue.

College officials hope eventually to establish a permanent 80-acre campus in Palmdale. It would be part of a master-planned housing development proposed on 540 acres south of Barrel Springs Road between 37th and 47th streets east.

Palmdale and college officials have been working on the plans for several years with developer David Bushnell.