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College campus coming to FairburnMon, 10/01/2007 - 8:51am
By: Ben Nelms
It was far from an average decision by a City Council. Fairburn council members Sept. 24 agreed to initiate a $10 million project that will construct a downtown college campus designed to house Georgia Military College (GMC) and possibly other satellite campuses from area colleges and universities. Plans call for GMC into move to the Fairburn-owned facility in October 2008. City administrator Jim Williams said discussions with GMC officials over their plans to relocate the campus from its current location in Union City had culminated in a plan for GMC to lease classroom and administrative space from Fairburn after the city builds a college campus on West Broad Street. That announcement was followed by a discussion that led to a decision by the council to approve the concept and the first phase of the campus project. The four-acre campus will be located on the site of the old Dodson Lawn & Farm Equipment business and will eventually consist of four 18,400 square-foot brick classroom buildings, an 11,400 square-foot administrative building and two 2,000 square-foot retail buildings. “The idea was to come up with something to fit with the historic downtown area and to get the historic atmosphere going,” Williams said of the classic architectural detail featured in the classroom buildings. “And it blends in with GMC’s Milledgeville campus. GMC was totally in awe of the project.” The initial undertaking will be construction of phase 1, which will include the first two classroom buildings along West Broad and two retail sandwich and coffee shops to be located between them. Also included is the three-story, colonial-style administration building that will be centered in the rear of the property and patterned after the old Campbell County Courthouse. Future phases will include construction of two additional classroom buildings to be located on either side of the administration building at the rear of the campus. Phase 1 will be completed by October 2008. GMC indicated its desire to move into one of the classroom buildings in October 2008 and to utilize a portion of the administration building, Williams said. Continuing conversations with other colleges and universities could result in a lease of the second classroom building, he said. The council is considering two sources of financing for the city-owned campus. Fairburn would use $5 million of the $12 million it currently holds in reserve to finance half of the approximately $10 million needed for Phase 1. The balance needed for phase 1, expected to be between $4-5 million, could be borrowed, Williams said. The 10-year lease by GMC for its portion of the space would pay for a significant portion of the financed amount, he said. The lease of the second classroom building in phase 1 would make up the difference, Williams added. The initial $10 million cost will also provide for the necessary site preparation work across the entire property. Phase 2 buildings would not be constructed until the city gets a firm commitment from interested educational institutions. Also needed will be parking space for 200 vehicles. Discussions to obtain that property are in process. Another facet of the transportation involves MARTA. With a bus stop already positioned at the front entrance of the campus, Williams said he hopes the city will be able to work with MARTA to establish express bus service to facilitate larger numbers of students. login to post comments
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