Red Deer College will hold an event to unveil their new satellite campus next month, a College official has said.
Doug Sharp, the College’s director of facilities, told the City’s Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) on Monday that an event to announce the new campus, which will be housed in the Millennium Centre, will take place next month.
“We don’t want to say much right now because we want that event to be special,” he said.
During this week’s meeting, MPC approved an application for a wall sign to be located on the Millennium Centre (4909 49 St.).
The wall sign will be placed on the north side of the building for up to a year and a half. It will advertise the new location of the satellite campus. The sign will be 20 feet wide by 60 feet high.
In June, MPC approved an application made by the College to locate a satellite campus on the third and fourth floor of the Millennium Centre. RDC will lease 21,620 sq.-ft. of space for the new campus.
In that application to MPC, the College outlines the need for the satellite campus that will allow them to increase capacity for program growth. The third and fourth floors of the Millennium Centre would include learning space, computer labs and offices.
“We are going through due process,” said Joel Ward, president of RDC, at the time of the initial approval. “The board (RDC Board of Directors) still has to make their approval and I anticipate we will have a fairly significant announcement to make in the near future.”
It is expected renovations will begin to the space in the Millennium Centre in December with programs commencing in September 2011.
In their initial submission to MPC, the College said leasing space for a satellite campus makes sense given the current economy and the government pull back in capital funding.
They outlined downtown Red Deer as their most desirable location for a satellite campus because of its good access from all areas of the City by vehicle, public transit, bicycle and pedestrian.
They said downtown would also be most suitable because of the full range of services that are offered that could potentially be required by students, faculty and staff.
RDC indicated in their submission that they explored various locations in the downtown core and determined the Millennium Centre to be the best location.
It currently has lease space coming available that will meet the physical needs of the College and there are services both in the building as well as nearby including food services, parking, transit and the library, that will provide the necessary support services to students and faculty.
If approved by the board, the majority of the learning space will be on the third floor with computer labs and faculty office and administration on the fourth floor.
There is an opportunity to lease additional space on the fourth and fifth floors in the future as currently leased space comes available.
The plan depicts about nine classrooms, three computer labs, a learning common and about 30 offices and workspaces.
