The St. Louis School Board has bought a downtown building for its new administrative headquarters. The three-story building, at 801 North 11th Street, cost $8.6 million.

Included in the deal is an adjacent 460-space parking garage. School officials say the site will allow them to consolidate the district's administrators in one building.

Now, school officials are scattered across six different sites, including 911 Locust Street, which has served as the district's headquarters since 1893.

"911 has been a boondoggle for such a long time," board Vice President John Mahoney said. "It has so many problems: roof, elevators."

Superintendent Cleveland Hammonds Jr. said the money for the new site will come out of board reserves. Missouri is giving the district $180 million for new schools as part of the desegregation settlement, but Hammonds said that money could not be used for a headquarters.

The 169,000-square-foot building on 11th Street was owned by Convention Plaza Office Building Associates, which has a group of 29 owners from California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania. The building sold for $7 million in January 1998, but school officials said the property's value had gone up, as it has for much of downtown.

Board President Marlene Davis said she believes the district "got a very good deal." School officials have been looking for a new headquarters for several years. But the board could never strike a deal.

Bank of America, the building's primary tenant, will move out of the first two floors, but will remain on the third floor for two more years. School officials also say that they will lease out some of the parking spaces. Because the parking garage is just a block from the Trans World Dome, the garage usually fills up on game days.

The district's current headquarters has about half the space of the 25-year-old building on 11th Street. School officials plan to sell the older building, and Carolyn Toft of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis says the structure is worth preserving.

The move will likely take place this summer. School officials said they will do some painting and clean the carpets, but little else before moving. Four other buildings now being used by administrators will be put back into use as classrooms. The sites, 5138 Raymond Avenue, 721 Pendleton Avenue, 4130 Lexington Avenue and 450 Des Peres Avenue, are ideal for programs like those that serve troubled students, officials say.