Montgomery – Alabama's two-year college system was able to rework a $26 million, 20-year contract for new office space that fired Chancellor Roy Johnson had reached before his departure.
Chancellor Bradley Byrne said Thursday that the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which owns the building the system will be moving into, agreed to rework the contract.
The new deal will shave off at least $477,000 a year from the old agreement, but the amount of annual savings isn't clear because the previous contract included additional space the system could sublet.
Byrne said he was grateful that the RSA, headed by David Bronner, agreed to renegotiate with the financially strapped system.
The original 20-year lease was arranged by Johnson before he was removed by the board in 2006.
It would have let the Department of Postsecondary Education take over the RSA's current six-story building for $1.19 million annually with increases every five years.
Rent for the first five years of the lease, which starts in 2009, will now be $715,543 and rise to $848,077 for the final five years.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)