This rendering shows the initial plans for the Ivy Tech Community College campus in New Castle. The area in red is the first phase of the project, which involves renovating a former car dealership.
Organizers behind a new Ivy Tech Community College campus hope to bring a "new image" to a vacant car dealership along the southern entrance to the City of New Castle.
For the first time this week, representatives from Ivy Tech laid out their preliminary plans for the campus, which will be located at 3335 S. Ind. 3, a building that was once the home of Oliver Motors.
Brian Hollars, an architect who's been working with Ivy Tech, told the Henry County Commissioners on Wednesday that the project will feature three phases that could eventually create an approximately 25,000-square-foot facility.
The first phase will be to renovate the existing car dealership structure. That phase will cover about 14,000 square feet.
Inside the dealership building will be classroom space, a computer laboratory, a lounge and an area for future industrial training.
The first phase of work on the campus will be funded by revenue from the Henry County food and beverage tax. In 2011, the Henry County Council allotted about $2.2 million for the new Ivy Tech facility from the tax, which is meant to fund economic development and tourism projects.
Ivy Tech hopes that the first phase of the campus will open for the fall semester in August.
The second and third phases of the project will come in the future. They will be new construction added on to the current structure. The second and third phases will require additional funding from community donors.
Hollars said the second phase would be about 7,500 square feet of space for a medical education wing, added on to the south of the existing structure.
The third phase would be about 5,000 square feet of more classroom space, added onto the north of the existing structure.
The additional phases would help create a "broader front door" for the building, Hollars said.
The architect added that Ivy Tech hopes to bring a "new image" to the car dealership and a "grand front facade."
Gail Chesterfield, the chancellor for Ivy Tech's East Central Region, said the college hopes to use the new facility to grow its student population in New Castle from about 350 currently to more than 1,000 in the next three to five years.
"This building will allow us to be more effective and to serve more individuals from this community," she told the commissioners on Wednesday night.
Chesterfield said the new campus will also allow Ivy Tech to continue its partnerships with other entities in Henry County.
For one, Ivy Tech will allow high school students here to take classes through the college to earn college credits before they graduate high school.
In addition, Ivy Tech wants to continue working with Henry County Hospital and other medical facilities here by expanding its medical and health programs.
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