Shovels in hand, several community and regional leaders gathered in Downtown Midland last week for the groundbreaking on the new Delta College Downtown Midland Center.
The new facility joins Delta's other downtown investments including the Delta College Planetarium at 100 Center Ave. in Bay City. It also places Delta in the heart of Midland’s downtown business community and the effort joins several other development projects that total over $150 million in investment in recent years including Dow Diamond, residential housing, commercial development, dining, infrastructure and office space.
After hearing comments from several partners, the group officially opened the site for construction of the 30,000 square foot planned facility scheduled to open in the fall of 2020 at 419 East Ellsworth St. in Midland. Classes will continue to be held at the current Delta College Midland Center on Wheeler Street for fall 2019 and winter 2020 semesters before relocating to the new Downtown Midland Center.
The new space will house science and computer labs, classrooms, advanced educational and training technology, special use training rooms, multi-purpose rooms and labs, student services and administrative offices.
The new Downtown Midland Center supports Delta’s mission to provide affordable access to high-quality, in-demand education for the region. The impact stays local as well, at an impressive rate: Over 97 percent of graduates in the last five years still live in Michigan and 83 percent reside in the Delta College service facility.
Delta truly is the community’s college and the new facility helps plan for several more decades here.
"Delta College has always been committed to providing local citizens with a college education that’s affordable, the highest quality and easy to access," says Delta College President Dr. Jean Goodnow. "I believe this Downtown Midland Center will continue to fulfill that commitment to our communities."
The Downtown Midland Center is an investment of approximately $13 million aimed at supporting the college’s ability to deliver the highest caliber of college instruction and workforce readiness training.
Truly a group effort, more than $9 million for the new facility was provided by community donors including Dow and the Dow Corning Foundation with additional support from The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation, the Charles J. Strosacker Foundation. In addition, the building’s site was donated by Chemical Bank and Dow.
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