College of the Canyons officials are set to begin working with a design company on what an on-campus Advanced Technology Center would look like.
The Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees, which oversees COC, approved doing so at Wednesday’s regular meeting. There was no discussion among the trustees, and it was approved via the consent calendar.
An on-campus facility was deemed to be more appropriate by the board following its cancellation earlier this year of an off-campus facility that had been planned to be constructed for $22 million. At the Sept. 25 meeting in which that contract was cancelled, board President Edel Alonso revealed that that true nature of that facility, including all of the inside furnishings and classroom spaces, would cost $38 million.
In canceling the deal, the board approved paying $10 million to the developer, Intertex, for the original project property — located at 26650 Valley Center Drive, just west of Golden Valley Road and north of Soledad Canyon Road — and the plans. The deal included $2.2 million in profit for the developer.
The original plan would have seen a 30,000-square-foot facility be built that would not have been large enough to house the current and future industry demand, according to college officials.
Now, the college can look at building a larger facility on-campus, which spokesman Eric Harnish said is better for student accessibility and its proximity to the nearby industrial and commerce centers.
David Andrus, interim president of the college, said the idea is to build something closer to the recommendation of 111,000 square feet that was included in the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers’ 2019 report. That recommendation, which Alonso has said the board did not receive prior to casting any votes when the original deal was approved in May 2023, was expected to cost about $50 million at the time.
Andrus said Wednesday that much of that report is still viable, though the cost would certainly be higher. He added that discussions have been had about where an on-campus facility would be built, but nothing has been finalized yet.
“The 2019 (report) was the baseline, and we have had internal conversations about where we think the ATC can go on campus,” Andrus said. “We’ve had programmatic conversations in terms of what needs to go in there. We certainly have a desire for a square footage that we would hope mirrors the 2019 report, which is about 111,000 square feet. Whether or not we can get there, we don’t know.”
A summit with the NCATC is scheduled for Dec. 10 and 11 at the temporary COC ATC, located at 26306 Diamond Place. That facility had its lease extension approved by the board on Wednesday, keeping it in the college’s hands through at least the 2027-28 school year as work begins on the future of the permanent one.
Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, has been invited to attend that summit, as have various industry partners, according to Andrus.
“What we do need to do is have the NCATC guide us through this conference that’s going to happen, and it will be very instructive to all of us,” Andrus said.
The ATC project is set to be funded through Measure E bond funds, of which there is just under $100 million left after voters approved $230 million to be procured in 2016 for facilities upgrades.
