This fall, higher education will be coming to the Sammamish plateau.

With a 6-1 vote, the Sammamish City Council authorized City Manager Lyman Howard to enter into a lease agreement with Central Washington University President Dr. James Gaudino for the property formerly occupied by Mars Hill Church.

Howard and Gaudino signed the lease and operating agreement at Tuesday night’s council meeting at Sammamish City Hall. The university is expected to begin offering college courses in Sammamish this September.

“I think we have an agreement that will serve Central Washington University well, but also the city well, and provides an opportunity for us to grow together in this partnership,” Gaudino told the council.

In a press release sent prior to Tuesday’s meeting, the city stated the initial lease will be for three years, with an annual base rent of $60,000 and will include options for multiple five-year extensions. After three years, the base rent will rise a minimum of $60,000 annually.

The terms of the lease call for the university to pay for all tenant improvements and lease the building “as is.” Central Washington will have a right to purchase the building “at a price that would recover all city investments in the building,” the city stated in the release. Should the university’s yearly operating margin exceed $500,000 in the lease’s third year, the base rent will increase $120,000 annually moving forward.

The council’s motion on Tuesday included that should the university decide to sell the property, the city will have a right of first refusal to purchase it back.

One “stumbling block” in the university’s process of coming to Sammamish, Gaudino said Tuesday, was receiving accreditation clearance from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. He said the university finally received its authority to operate in Sammamish earlier that day.

Central Washington is expected to offer Running Start classes for high school students, as well as continuing education classes for adults, professional certifications and coursework for baccalaureate and master’s degrees.

Mayor Don Gerend commented with a Running Start program available in Sammamish, local students will have the opportunity to participate in high school activities while also taking part in the program.

“We’re pleased with the whole process. We feel that you’re the perfect choice for us,” Gerend commented to Gaudino.

The city purchased the two-story, 30,807-square-foot building and 22.4-acre property for $6.2 million in March 2015, with an intent of bringing higher education to the plateau. The property is located at 120 228th Ave. NE and is within walking distance of neighboring high schools Eastlake, Skyline and Eastside Catholic.

The city had previously fielded inquiries from other interested buyers, including from Cascadia College, Bellevue College and the Lake Washington Institute of Technology.

Councilmember Tom Hornish served as the lone dissenting vote to Tuesday’s motion. Hornish, who was not on the council in 2015, said while he thought bringing secondary education to Sammamish was a “laudable goal” and something he would support, he believed the agreement required too much subsidy from the city. He noted the $6 million price tag from 2015 and the lack of profit the city would see since the purchase.

“I’d be willing to subsidize some, but I just feel that this is too much of a subsidy with the investment we have, with the cash and the financial that we’re looking at,” Hornish said. “For that reason, I feel it’s a misplaced priority at this time and is fiscally irresponsible.”

Gerend commented that when the council started the process of acquiring the property for higher education, “We didn’t look at it as a profit center for the city.” He contended that having the university on the plateau could increase the value of property in the city and that it could serve as “a profit center for the city, in terms of the real estate taxes.”

“When families are looking for a place to live and they see you have a source of higher education here and a reputable university, the value of our real estate throughout the city is going to go up,” Gerend said.