Great Plains purchases property for expansion

In an effort to expand their training for entities such as Goodyear, Bar-S and Republic Paper, Great Plains Technology Center plans to purchase real property of the old Serco building, 6501 W. Gore, by the end of December.

In a previous article, GPTC planned to expand its Economic Development building on-campus for the same reason. Due to the cost per square foot, they had to find a better option, Superintendent Clarence Fortney said.

“We’re in the process of buying that building at $4 million,” Fortney said. “It’s 52,500 sq. ft., it’s a concrete tilt up building, which makes it pretty durable. We want to look at that space to move our industrial maintenance safety training and soft skill leadership training.”

The McMahon Foundation plans to donate $1 million to the project over the next four years, Fortney said.

“We’re using some building fund money to purchase and build it out,” Fortney said. “Cost of expansion for new construction (for the old building) was estimated or projected to be over $400. By being able to buy an existing building, we’ll be able to save some money on that cost because that building is already there, we’re just going to have to build out inside.”

The facility will be 2½ miles from the campus, Fortney said. The students will be adult or post-secondary students, with the majority being employees of the companies giving the training.

The building that was previously going to be used for the expansion, will be used to add new programs in the future, for high school and adult students, with the option of doing it online.

“We’re saving construction costs and increasing capacity, which will also increase our ability to do training for students here on the main campus,” Fortney said.