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SUNY Jamestown Community College is awaiting word on whether it will receive support to establish a workforce development center in Dunkirk.
During a board of trustees meeting, JCC President Daniel DeMarte provided a brief update on the college's application for $2.2 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding. Just over 20 projects are seeking a share of $10 million, with JCC looking to establish a new presence at the Graf Building, located at 319 Central Ave.
Each proposal will be judged against a criteria established from three questions posed earlier in the application process.
DeMarte said the college's success in moving to the Graf Building will be dependent on three objectives: achieving a target enrollment of 62 (full-time equivalent) students in the academic programs; that businesses will be sending their employees for workforce training that the college is looking to offer; and that the city will help address "other issues" that will make the location a success, such as transportation and child care.
"So we are saying, as part of our project, that if this is going to work for us, that these are the targets that we need to achieve," DeMarte said.
DeMarte and other college officials recently toured the Central Avenue property.
"We narrowed some of the specifics to ensure we're on the same page in terms of not wanting the whole building," he said. "We want floors two and three only, not the first floor. And we may or may not want the basement depending on the feedback we get. … We're not committing to any more than two floors right now."
Using the established criteria, the list of projects that ultimately will receive funds is expected to be narrowed shortly.
In addition to JCC's proposed move from the North County Center on Bennett Road to downtown Dunkirk, $4.5 million is being sought to redevelop the site of the former Masonic Lodge that was destroyed in a 2005 fire. Nostra Development is looking to construct a 7,500-square-foot building in the vacant lot, with ground floor commercial space and 45 to 50 market rate apartments upstairs. The project has an estimated price tag of $11.75 million.
"I don't know how far they're going to go," DeMarte said of the projects that will not move forward in the DRI application process. "They could go so far as to narrow it to just those that are going to be in it from this point on. They may not go that far, but either way, we will know whether or not we continue on."
He added, "If that's the case, then we've got to get busy and get faculty and others in that space to begin talking through just exactly how do we want the layout to be. Where do we want classrooms? Where do we want offices? How do we want them set up?"
The local planning committee overseeing the DRI awards recently hosted its second public input workshop. Attendees were asked to fill out surveys, answering the same three questions about each project:
¯ does the project align with DRI's vision, goals and strategies?
¯ will the project transform downtown Dunkirk?
¯ is the level of support for the project low, medium or high?
If awarded funding, the new space inside the Graf Building could bring access to workforce training and certificate programs within walking distance of local schools. JCC first established the North County Center in 1988 as an effort to develop and offer non-credit training courses to northern Chautauqua communities. The center was first housed in the Dunkirk Chamber of Commerce, at the time located on Lakeshore Drive.
The center was relocated to the first floor of its current address on Bennett Road in 1991.