PROVO — Go West, BYU.
The university's campus will stretch west across University Avenue and swallow up 25 acres where Provo High School has stood for 60 years, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins confirmed Tuesday morning.
The university will pay $25 million. What BYU will do with its expanded western boundary is unknown.
"We have not made any long-term plans at this point," Jenkins said.
The Provo School District announced last year that it would build a new campus for Provo High on the western outskirts of the city. The district will break ground on that new campus — west of Geneva Road near Utah Lake — at 4 p.m. Wednesday at approximately 1300 N. Lakeshore Drive.
Until the new school is completed, BYU will lease the current Provo High School buildings and land back to the Provo School District at no cost. That arrangement is scheduled to last 30 months, Jenkins said. The new high school is expected to be complete by fall 2018.
The school district's Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday morning to approve the sale.
"We view this as a remarkable arrangement," Provo School Board president Julie Rash said in a statement.
"Several interested and qualified buyers expressed interest in the property over the last several months," she added. "We are confident that we have reached the best arrangement for the students of Provo High and the community."
Before the sale is finalized, BYU will spend two months conducting geological and other studies on the property, according to the school district. That process is expected to be completed in June or July.
BYU's campus already is undergoing major makeovers.
Earlier Tuesday morning, BYU announced it will break ground May 9 on a new, 200,000-square-foot engineering building. Funded entirely by 18,000 donors, the building is scheduled to be completed and occupied by fall 2018.
The new building will be located just south of the current engineering building, the W.W. Clyde Building. A five-level structure, the new building will cascade down the hillside where the Knight Mangum Building once stood.
Groundbreaking ceremonies will be live-streamed at http://engineeringbuilding.byu.edu/livestream
On Monday, BYU announced the final phase of the Campus Drive redesign project, which has dramatically altered the campus and its traffic flow. The latest phase will redesign the intersection of Bulldog Boulevard and Campus Drive near the Marriott Center, Hinckley Visitors Center and Abraham Smoot Building.
Work will begin Monday and be completed before August graduation.
The university is also one year from completing the final phase of its Heritage Halls on-campus housing project. The final four original buildings were demolished last year and the new Heritage Halls residence building is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2017.
BYU's board of trustees approved all of these projects.
"As with any large campus," Jenkins said, "we are in a constant state of renovating."
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