It looks like a college campus, and now it's becoming one.

RadioShack Corp.'s 18.7-acre headquarters complex in downtown Fort Worth has been sold by the landlord to Tarrant County College District for $238 million in cash.

The college district will use most of the facility along the Trinity River for a new downtown campus. An $80 million renovation will begin this year, and classes are planned to start in September 2009.

RadioShack said it will stay in about 400,000 square feet that it currently occupies through June 2011 with an option to extend the lease through June 2013.

In total, the buildings have 900,000 square feet, but the struggling consumer electronics retailer has cut its corporate staff significantly, including the layoff of 514 people in 2006.

The new lease will greatly reduce its rent, RadioShack said, without saying how much.

Soon after it moved into the new building, RadioShack sold the property in December 2005 to German real estate investment company Kan Am Grund and entered into a 20-year lease.

That sales price wasn't disclosed, but RadioShack reported in filings that land and construction costs totaled $226.8 million. At the time, RadioShack said the transaction allowed it to pay down $220 million in debt.

The purchase won't affect construction of the TCC facility that is under way on the south bluff of the Trinity River in downtown Fort Worth.