The California Heritage YouthBuild Academy is about to get a new home in Redding.Board members of the public charter school voted unanimously on Monday to purchase property for the project at 1400 Industrial St. near Lowe’s Home Improvement.
The charter school’s board approved spending $8.5 million to buy the parcel from owners K2 Development company and the nonprofit McConnell Foundation. K2 and McConnell are local development powerhouses that have partnered in the Block 7 Retailers mixed-use housing, retail and parking development in downtown Redding.
The 36,600-square-foot building proposed by CHYBA to go up on the 10.1-acre Industrial Street site is expected to be completed in time for 2028–29 school year, the group’s Executive Director Cathy Taylor said.
Enrollment at the charter school will be capped at 270 students, with 130 on campus at any given time.
The development will also include classrooms, offices, a dining area, gymnasium and outdoor basketball courts and soccer field.
A bike trail proposed by the city will provide pedestrian and bicycle access to the CHYBA campus that will connect with the nearby Center of Hope medical and residential properties, Redding planner Danny Castro told the Planning Commission during a public meeting last fall about the charter school’s development.
Renderings of the proposed CHYBA campus shown during the group’s earlier board meeting on June 25 illustrate areas dedicated to English, early education and math and science, as well as job training instruction in cosmetology and culinary arts.
The CHYBA campus will be located east of Churn Creek Road, north of Cypress Avenue, south of Mistletoe Lane and west of Victor Avenue. The project is intended to provide a permanent school facility and expanded workforce training opportunities for young people.
“We’ve been working super hard to acquire the property,” Taylor said at the charter school board’s meeting on June 25.
CHYBA had been operating from a location on Airport Road in south Redding until the program added a second location at the former Crosspoint Church at 2960 Hartnell Ave. CHYBA went on to serve nearly all its students at the Hartnell site until the school year ended June 12.
After the church closed and the Crosspoint complex was sold earlier this year, CHYBA was left looking for another space for its students when classes resume in August.
“At this time, we have not yet secured a larger campus site for the 2026–27 school year. Final site location and student placement decisions for the upcoming year are still being worked through,” said Taylor via email.
At its upcoming campus on Industrial Street, CHYBA anticipates serving a more diverse population of students — from teens to young adults — who are seeking a smaller, more hands-on, career pathway-focused education.
The Airport Road location is expected to remain part of CHYBA’s operations while the long-term Industrial Street campus is being developed.
Also on CHYBA’s future vision board is creating a workforce education complex at 1255 Industrial St., property now leased from the Block 7 consortium. Tenant improvements must still be made at that location, which does not yet have an estimated occupancy date.
Michele Chandler covers public safety, reports on trials in Shasta County Superior Court, writes about restaurants and foodies and handles whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding charter school approves opening a new $8.5M campus
Reporting by Michele Chandler, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Michele Chandler, Redding Record Searchlight | USA TODAY Network
