Guayama school-to-elder-care plan reaches 21 filings since 2023
The Municipio Autónomo de Guayama filed a new infrastructure recommendation request on October 20, 2026 for its plan to turn the Eleuterio Derkes school at Calle Rafael Santiago Cruz in Barrio Pueblo, Guayama into a daytime care center for older adults. It is the 21st filing for the project since June 13, 2023, and none of them is a construction permit.
Three years of early filings
The project opened with environmental pre-consultations on June 13, 2023. Legal, archaeology and historic conservation, infrastructure and buildability pre-consultations followed, the last on October 2, 2023.
Recommendation requests came next. Archaeology and historic conservation reviews were approved on filings of November 6, 2023 and May 30, 2024, an environmental categorical exclusion on a filing of March 19, 2024, and an environmental recommendation on a filing of October 3, 2025.
Infrastructure recommendation requests, filed with the permits office before a construction permit or consultation to check whether infrastructure is available, make up 11 of the 21 filings. Seven were approved, the latest under case 2023-496258-SRI-332300, filed July 30, 2026.
One request filed July 10, 2026 was returned for correction and one from 2024 was archived. Two, filed July 10, 2026 and October 20, 2026, show no outcome yet.
What the plan covers
The filings describe restoring the school building, replacing its facade, reconditioning passive recreation spaces, upgrading electrical and mechanical systems and modernizing architectural elements. A filing does not mean work has started, and with no construction permit filed the project is still at an early stage.
The property covers 2,155 m2 (23,201 sq ft) inside the Zona Histórica de Guayama, and the Puerto Rico Land Use Plan classifies it as urban land. Its tax-roll assessment is $82,034: $78,154 for the structure and $3,880 for the land.
