Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994 TAG: 9403160069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
As it wrapped up its 1994 session last weekend, the legislature approved $2 million in start-up costs for a long-sought campus of Tidewater Community College in downtown Norfolk.
"It virtually assures that it's going to become a reality," City Councilman Paul Fraim said.
The campus is scheduled to open in summer 1996. It is expected to draw 6,000 students initially and eventually up to 10,000, said John Massey, director of Norfolk campus development for the college.
That enrollment would be more than 10 times the college's current enrollment of 900 students in two temporary locations in Norfolk.
"We will attract thousands of students not being served by higher education. They're not attending Old Dominion University, they're not attending Norfolk State, they're not going anywhere," Massey said.
Tidewater Community College has 17,000 students at campuses in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Chesapeake.
Construction on the Norfolk campus is scheduled to start in December. Three vacant downtown buildings will be remodeled, and a $4 million science building will be constructed, Massey said.
The campus will offer the usual range of programs, from English to science.
Fraim said the campus will generate more development.
"It just makes common sense," he said. "Someone is going to open up a bookstore, a gift shop, another coffee shop. Those types of things that are usually attracted by a college campus will probably grow and prosper."
The $2 million state appropriation will help pay for design and construction. The city will issue about $16 million in bonds, and the state will pay the city $1.3 million a year in lease payments for 20 years.
Keywords:
G.A. 1994
by CNB