BLUEFIELD — Bluefield College and the town of Bluefield are one step closer to breaking ground on a new multi-million dollar campus and community center.
During a Feb. 15 press conference on the BC campus, leaders from both the town and the school announced the successful completion of preliminary discussions and plans between the two parties and the approval from both with that accord to move forward with fundraising for the project.
An architect's rendering of the new campus center (top) was unveiled at a Bluefield press conference.
Bluefield College president David Olive and town mayor Jimmy Jones formally revealed the latest development in the public-private coop designed to bring a facility to Bluefield that will serve the recreational needs of both BC students and the Bluefield community at-large.
“This is a great day for the greater Bluefield community,” Olive told the media and officials assembled for the press conference. “Two separate entities — one private and the other public — each looking at separate projects, deciding that more could be accomplished together than working independently of one another.”
During a special called session on Feb. 9, Bluefield College's board of trustees approved a resolution that not only gave the school's administration the go-ahead to move forward with fundraising for the center, but also authorized BC officials to partner with the town in the development of the final design for the facility and an operating and lease agreement. The town approved a similar decision two weeks earlier.
The college and the town began collaborative discussions about a proposed campus and community center in the fall of 2006. Since then, the two parties have considered site proposals, discussed facility specifications, analyzed funding and construction plans, and developed architectural renderings.
Designed by architects from Thompson and Litton in Tazewell, the new center will sit on the Bluefield College campus, on the corner portion of land where the BC Dome currently resides, just east of Rish Hall, a dormitory.
The facility — a $14 million structure designed to meet the fitness, exercise and sport activities of both the campus and the community — will house a 1,000-seat intercollegiate competition gymnasium and three community recreation gyms, which when combined can form a 32,000 square-foot convention hall. The building, a projected total 82,000 square feet, will also feature a fitness center, senior center, student center, conference rooms, athletic training rooms, and walking tracks.
The press conference was led by (from left) BC board chair Dan Grabeel, BC president David Olive and Bluefield mayor Jimmy Jones.
“This is going to be a state-of-the-art facility,” said BC dean of students Carrie Camden. “I don't think there will be a facility comparable to this in the area. This is a project and a facility that will bond this college and the community together for a long, long time.”
While most of the Center's space will be shared between the town and the school, exclusive space will be available to each party.
Construction on the center, officials predict, will begin in about a year, sooner or later depending on the progress of fundraising. Plans are to complete the $14 million building debt-free with donations from many different constituencies.
Steve Spangler, BC's vice president for advancement, said that the new center is a significant part of Bluefield College's current capital campaign, the school's first since 1997, which is designed to bring new and improved facilities to campus, scholarship funds to students, and growth in the college's endowment.