Engineering Building Construction
Lakeland Community College is expanding and renovating its Engineering Technologies building to ensure job training meets employer needs in advanced manufacturing and applied engineering.
The project will modernize most of the Engineering Building's existing space (aged 38 years) and provide capacity for Lakeland to implement new programming and fulfill demand that is currently unmet in the region. Market factors indicate that demand is high for educated, entry-level manufacturing employees.
This project has local workforce support from the Lake Development Authority, Lake County Workforce Development Board, Geauga Growth Partnership, Alliance for Working Together (AWT) and many area manufacturing companies. Ohio's new Intel plant and suppliers also represent an enormous opportunity for Lakeland graduates.
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded a $4.2 million grant to Lakeland to renovate its Industrial Skills Training Center for Advanced Manufacturing, located on the east side of the building. The EDA investment will be matched with $3.1 million in local funds and is expected to create or retain over 900 jobs and contribute $5.2 million in private matching investment.
Lakeland's engineering advisory committees, faculty, lab instructors and student representatives were involved in the design process. The project will expand labs, improve teaching adjacencies, resolve overcrowding and safety issues, and provide student collaboration spaces.
Construction is expected to begin in Spring '24 and take 14 months. The first phase of construction is expansion of the south entry for a lobby and student collaboration space, and expansion of the industrial labs on the southwest sides of the building.
The project cost is about $20 million. Funding will be provided by state capital appropriations, the U.S. EDA capital award and college debt financing.