HOUSTON -- A nonprofit home for about 200 mentally retarded people built on prime real estate could lose its land to the city, which says the center’s lease is invalid and wants the lucrative property developed to generate more revenue.

Forcing out the aging nonprofit—which currently pays the city $1 a year under its lease—would allow the city to sell the increasingly valuable six acres of public land near downtown.

By one broker’s estimate, the tract is worth as much as $26 million.

But the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation, which signed a 99-year lease in 1963 and serves hundreds in addition to those living there, doesn’t intend to go quietly.

“I’m trying not to be real combative about it, but, doggone it, at the end of the day, if it comes to it, we’ll fight,” said Jack Manning, a member of the center’s board.

City attorneys argue the center’s nearly centurylong lease is invalid under the city charter, which limits leases to no more than 30 years.

Houston Mayor Bill White said the city has offered to help the center find a new location or lease the property at a rate closer to market value. Manning said market value is too steep for his nonprofit, a United Way agency with an annual budget of about $11 million.

“We are trying to make sure that we use the resources that we have to help the most number of people that are in the most need,” White said.

City officials, who maintain that selling the property would benefit more people in the long run, say the bid process would take place in the next six to nine months. The center would have about three years to relocate, and any sale must be approved by the city council.

Stan Creech, a Houston real estate broker who puts the land’s worth at $26 million, thinks the tract is choice for high-rise condominiums largely because of the unobstructed view of downtown.

“That’s Class A. It doesn’t get any better,” Creech said.

Aside from the residence hall, the center runs a sheltered work

site, vocational training, an adult day care and support services for mentally disabled clients living in neighboring apartments.

Eva Aguirre, the center’s executive director, said the center has provided more than $1 million in yearly services to people who can’t afford to pay.

Houston city councilwoman Ada Edwards concedes that the city is in tough position. She said that while the city has a duty to taxpayers to be financially responsible with the public land, there’s also a moral and social responsibility.

“I think there is a larger issue that needs to be raised, and I hope the community will help us look at this issue,” she said.  “Because, if we do remove them, where will they go? And who will be responsible for their care?”