County to buy WCC new facility
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 22, 2014 1:46 PM
Wayne County and its Development Alliance are close to finalizing a deal on a former manufacturing facility that would house Wayne Community's College's Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence.
The center could be partially operational in 2015 and fully operation in 2016.
Wayne County Manager George Wood said he could not reveal what plant is being considered. The deal was mentioned earlier this month as alliance officials reviewed the progress of their five-year strategic plan adopted in 2011.
"We will be making an announcement very shortly on this thing because we have agreed on the terms," Wood said following the alliance's annual retreat. "Where it is right now is between the two lawyers to finalize the agreement.
"But we have come to terms. We just haven't signed it yet."
Wood said the county would use a low-interest loan through the former Eastern Region to help purchase the property that in turn would be leased to WCC at a nominal fee.
Impact Wayne, the alliance's private sector fundraising arm, has earmarked $500,000 for that site as well as for a second site for economic development.
The center will house manufacturing training equipment now located at WCC that will create a simulated work environment. It will be used to train new and existing work forces while attracting business and industry to the area, WCC President Dr. Kay Albertson said.
"What it is going to do for us, is it is going to allow the college to take programs of study that we have currently, like machining, welding, heating and air conditioning, moving all of these programs under one roof, providing them room to do simulated manufacturing types of activities," Mrs. Albertson said. "It will have classrooms. It will have laboratories. Some of the manufacturing areas will need laboratories.
"It will have square footage that will actually represent a manufacturing floor. We have the kind of equipment that you can change out. Something may look like a manufacturing floor for pharmaceuticals, but then you could switch, and it could be a simulated environment for making a widget that goes into an airplane."
The center will have to be accredited just like the main campus, she said.
Also, using the facility will free up approximately 22,000 square feet at the existing campus that could be used for other programs, particularly in continuing education, Mrs. Albertson said.
"We still have some really great space that is part of manufacturing, but we could do more short-term kind of things -- plumbing, maybe bricklaying -- those kind of things," she said. "Those types of things that are really good-paying jobs, but we are losing the artisans in those areas.
"Our nursing program needs more space. Our science program needs more space."
Building a 22,000-square-foot building to handle those needs would cost millions of dollars, she said.
"We are repurposing some real valuable space, putting it in a repurposed building," she said. "From a taxpayer's perspective, it is about the best kind of move anyone could make."
The county is responsible for the college's facilities, Wood noted.
A new 22,000-square-foot classroom building would cost at least $3.4 million, making it cheaper for the county to buy the property than having to build, Wood said.
"If you figure $125 to $150 per square foot on (building) classroom space, I mean this is a tremendous savings from that because now we don't have to go out their anytime soon and build additional classroom space because we freed up all of that classroom space," he said. "I can assure you we are not paying anywhere near that (for the site)."
Mike Haney, the alliance's existing industry specialist, said he could not comment on how the property came to the county's attention.
"The high-tech (manufacturing) equipment takes training and that is what we want to see from the advanced manufacturing center," Haney said.
The center will be drawing card for the county, he said.
"It is very important that the county is meeting the needs of industry," Haney said. This is going to give Wayne County a deferential advantage as far as recruiting. That is one of the things we really want to do."
Another benefit is the equipment WCC wants to put in the center is already at the college, Wood said.
"We have been talking about it (center) for at least two years," Mrs. Albertson said. "We took some trips to look at other advanced manufacturing types of programs -- nothing that is conceptually like ours, what we have actually visioned ours as.
"But you have to look at some things to get ideas about space, and what other counties are doing to attract business and industry."
There 12 centers statewide, but WCC's will be unique, she said.
It is not just about educating a workforce, she said.
"It is about attracting business and industry because they know that with centers of excellence, like we are talking about, they are going to come in and have a prepared work force," she said.
With a partnership with Wayne County Public Schools Mrs. Albertson said she hopes to initiate an apprenticeship program for high school students.
Currently, 16-year-olds cannot work as an apprentice in a manufacturing setting because of OSHA rules.
However, the equipment in the center would allow students to work in a simulated manufacturing setting, she said.
Mrs. Albertson said she also hopes to reach across lines and attract students from surrounding counties and even from out of state.