toledoblade.com -- The Blade ~ Toledo Ohio

A large reception desk welcomes visitors to the newest Owens Community College building.

Academic classes are to the right and a work force training area is to the left. But it's OK if someone goes the wrong way, because it's set up in a big circle.

The Arrowhead Park Learning Center in Maumee, a 25,000-square-foot facility 15 miles from the college's main campus in Perrysburg Township, is Owens' second expansion into Lucas County.

"Students weren't making the trip from here to come to the main campus," said John Satkowksi, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the college. "So we're bringing it to them."

The grand opening celebration today of the learning center at 1724 Indian Wood Circle is to kick off with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony at 8 a.m. followed by tours throughout the day until 7 p.m.

The Arrowhead Park site is in the same spirit as the college establishing a learning center at The Source in downtown Toledo, which has had successful enrollment, Mr. Satkowski said.

"The Source downtown was the test, which told us we can do this," he said.

Owens had been looking to expand in Arrowhead Park for three years. The college had signed a lease for a different building, but the owner went bankrupt and Owens had to look for a new spot, Mr. Satkowski said.

Amy Fox, left, Courtney Hamilton, and Nichole Hreben set up one of the computer labs at Owens’ building in Maumee.
( THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER )

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Heidelberg University also has a campus in Arrowhead Park, and Stautzenberger College relocated there from its former site in South Toledo.

Owens is moving its work force and community services division from its location at 2249 Tracy Rd. to Arrowhead Park to better meet the needs of businesses in the area, said Michael Bankey, vice president of the division.

"We took the operation from our Tracy Road location and brought it here," he said. "But we will have staff going back and forth as we continue to hold training at both locations."

The Tracy Road site is more industrial and the Maumee location is more of a business setting, Mr. Bankey said.

"It's going to have a much different feel than what we could provide at Tracy Road," he said.

A number of the academic classes also will focus on business studies because of the proximity to businesses and offices in Arrowhead Park, Interim Provost Renay Scott said.

Along with business, accounting, and marketing classes, general education courses such as English, math, and speech will be offered there.

"We work with adult students and others who have limited time to take courses, and we've helped them with scheduling night classes and Web classes and now we're doing it by adding locations," Ms. Scott said.

The new facility has 14 classrooms, 4 computer labs, 19 offices, and a student lounge.

There's a student services area with advising and financial aid assistance and a lab for students in the state tested nursing assistant certificate program to practice their skills using hospital beds.

The majority of the classrooms are smaller to serve about 20 students, but there is a large room that can hold 100 and a flexible classroom that has two temporary walls to transform it from one big room to three smaller ones.

"What they've done in renovating this building has been amazing," Mr. Satkowski said.

The cost to turn the office building into an academic setting was about $60 a square foot, he said.

The college is leasing the space for $31,000 a month. The rent for the 10-year lease is $372,000 a year, which includes the $1.6 million in renovations, Mr. Satkowski said. The college contributed $220,000 for furniture and computers for the new building, he added.

The learning center has a maximum capacity of 440 students, but officials expect about 130, or 30 percent of maximum occupancy, to be in the building at any given time, Mr. Satkowksi said.

The first noncredit training courses begin today at the Arrowhead Park Learning Center, and academic courses for credit will start Jan. 21.

Contact Meghan
Gilbert-Cunningham at:
mcunningham@theblade.com
or 419-724-6134.

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