COLUMBUS, Ind. — Students and community members can mark the date for a groundbreaking for Ivy Tech Community College’s new campus building.
Therese Copeland, executive director of resource development for Ivy Tech’s Columbus campus, said that the college will host a virtual groundbreaking at 3 p.m. April 1.
“Obviously that’s April Fool’s day, but no fooling, that’s when we’re having it,” she said.
The virtual groundbreaking will be a video premiere on the campus’s YouTube channel with a live chat, said Ivy Tech Communications Coordinator Chris Schilling.
“It will feature our campus leadership, employees, students, the building architect and builder,” he said. He added that more information will be announced as the event gets closer.
College officials also offered other updates on the project at a recent Ivy Tech board meeting.
Erica Speer, director of instructional sites, said the building contractor has arrived on campus.
“Over winter break, Pepper Construction put up the construction fence, and they’ve mobilized, obviously, their construction office trailer,” she said. “So they’re on-site, which is super exciting.”
Copeland touched on the project’s fundraising efforts. Schilling has said in the past that state dollars for the project are $29.89 million, and the college is authorized to spend almost $32.88 million with fundraising.
“Based on our initial estimations from the architect, the contractors and the vendors, we’re going to need to raise about $3 million from our supporters and community partners to afford the innovative training equipment that we’re going to need for our programs,” Copeland said.
She said that the majority of the equipment they need to purchase is for health sciences, information and technology and science labs.
“We’ve started having conversations and working on grants with our strongest industry partners and those community leaders who are advocates for us,” she said. “And Steven (Combs, Ivy Tech Columbus chancellor) and I have been just amazed at the generosity thus far.”
Ivy Tech officials have also been in contact with potential donors from some surrounding counties and have received a “major gift” from Jackson County. She said they’ve even been going nationwide with some of their requests for support.
In February of 2020, Ivy Tech selected IwamotoScott Architecture of San Francisco to design its new main campus building in Columbus. A grant from Cummins Foundation Architecture Program will pay the architectural design fee for Ivy Tech’s new building. Copeland said that the grant has helped the college in creating an “incredibly innovative and wonderful building.”
The new structure will replace the aging Poling Hall. Schilling has said in the past that the new building will be 80,943 square feet.
Combs has said in the past that the project isn’t just a new main campus building, but actually a completely new campus for Ivy Tech-Columbus, with the new building becoming the entryway to the Columbus AirPark and to the entire Learning Center campus.
The architect of record for the project is CSO Architects, and the contractor is Pepper Construction. Both are based in Indianapolis.
Combs has said in the past that the college hopes for occupancy in the summer of 2022 and final completion in December of 2022.
