TDCJ to move offices into new buildings – Huntsville Item

A construction project that started quietly a couple of years ago is finally underway at the intersection of State Highway 30 and Veterans Memorial Parkway.

Concrete has been poured and walls have started going up on a pair of office buildings located across the highway from West Hill Mall.

A spokesman with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told The Item on Monday that TDCJ plans to move two of its Huntsville divisions into those offices when they are completed later this year.

The Texas Facilities Commission, through a competitive bidding process, awarded a contract and (those offices) will be used by the Board of Pardons and Parole and the Office of Inspector General,TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said of the buildings under construction near the Tractor Supply store on Veterans Memorial Parkway.Approximately 230 employees will relocate to the building once its completed. The planned completion date is August 2017.

Currently, the Board of Pardons and Parole has an office on 11th Street in Huntsville. The Huntsville Office of Inspector General is located on Lake Road.

According to Clark, the Office of Inspector General needs more space.

The new location will be better-suited for their needs, Clark said of the OIG. Additional TDCJ staff will fill the office space at Lake Road when OIG moves.

The Board of Pardons and Parole will be consolidating offices when it relocates into the space on Veterans Memorial Parkway and Highway 30.

The West Hill Group LP is in charge of the 10-acre construction project, but because of a confidentiality agreement signed by the developers, people involved with the project were unable to comment at this time.

City of Huntsville staff members are excited about another new project that has gotten underway in the past month or so. In addition to a new H-E-B grocery store being built soon at the site of an aging shopping center on 11th Street, a new Sears store has opened next to Academy in the Ravenwood Shopping Center and a new Firestone store is under construction on Interstate 45 near Home Depot.

It will be privately owned lease space,City of Huntsville economic development director Aron Kulhavy said of the new office space, so itwill be on the tax rolls.

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TDCJ to move offices into new buildings - Huntsville Item