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Jesuit High School (right) purchased the Valley Plaza Shopping Center (left) except for the Jack in the Box.

(Jesuit High School)

Jesuit High School earlier this week purchased the Valley Plaza Shopping Center, a 14-acre retail plaza next to the school on the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway.

John Gladstone, president of the Catholic school, said no student tuition dollars were used to purchase the property and no tuition dollars will be used for maintenance or operations related to the center. He declined to give the exact cost of the purchase, but said it was significant. Donations covered more than half of the expense, he said.

Portland property management group Norris & Stevens had the property listed for sale at $8.8 million, about $100 per square foot, in 2012.

Faculty and staff at the school were told about the purchase Friday afternoon, Dec. 20, Gladstone said. The school bought the entire lot aside from the Jack in the Box in one corner.

“It’s just to guarantee our future,” Gladstone said, adding that the school has been looking at purchasing at least part of the shopping center for about 10 years.

The Valley Plaza Shopping Center is home to Winterhawks Skating Center and Play It Again Sports, among other businesses. Gladstone said most of the tenants have leases for seven more years or longer, and there will be no immediate changes to the businesses.

As for the long-term, there are no concrete plans for campus expansion or anything else the land might be used for, Gladstone said.

“We just thought this was a great opportunity to preserve our west boundary and to look to our future,” he said.

The purchase will increase the overall land owned by Jesuit High School by about 40 percent, Gladstone said.

--Kari Bray