Brazos County approves feasibility study for former Bryan ISD Administration Building

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – On Tuesday Brazos County Commissioners extended a contract to continue a feasibility study, to determine whether a project is practical or not, for the former Bryan ISD Administration Building.

The county bought the building, known as the BISD building, that resides on Texas Avenue near Downtown Bryan back in 2021. Since then, the county has looked at various ways they could utilize the building. Brazos County Judge Duane Peters said the county hopes the building will be the new home for various departments.

At this time Peters said he is unsure of which specific departments, since it has changed multiple times. The county has been working with The Arkitex Studio, Inc. to see which departments would make sense in the building.

“We’ve tried to determine what departments seem logical to fit into the old BISD building and as you do that you look at the number of square feet and weigh it with future growth,” Peters said. “There’s been some departments that we tried to fit in there that seemed like on the surface would fit, but then when you start looking at the flow of people through there, the public, and all that then some of those we’ve had to eliminate.”

In the feasibility study’s first attempt, it was determined that the Public Defenders Office and the Adult Probation Department would not fit in the building, in another study it was determined that the Justice of the Peace Pct 4, Attorney General with Child Protection Services, and the Public Defenders office would also not fit.

“It looked like the ones that we originally proposed were the most logical, but once we started seeing all of the things that it would take we just could not fit them so we’ve looked at different ones,” Peters said.

The latest contract extension costs $7,000 and will examine if the building can house the Adult Probation and Justice of the Peace Pct 4 in the building.

“They’ve already used up the time that we had allotted for them to be able to do it, it’s still a work in progress now, but my hope is what has potentially been proposed now, it’s not 100% till they come back and say ‘here’s what it is and there is plenty of square feet,’” Peters said.

Peters said funds from the American Rescue Plan Act are being used for the building renovations which means it must be completed by December 2026.