Cincinnati State signs deal to bring branch campus to Middletown

By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer Updated 7:27 PM Thursday, April 5, 2012

    MIDDLETOWN — At least 200 students will be taking classes this fall at the new downtown Cincinnati State Technical & Community College branch campus.
    Cincinnati State officials announced Thursday that after months of negotiating a contract with its developer, Massachusetts-based Higher Education Partners, they have consummated a deal that will turn the former CG&E building at the corner of Central Avenue and North Main Street into the school’s first branch campus in Butler County.
    “We’re tremendously excited about the opportunity to extend our presence into the Middletown community,” said Cincinnati State President Dr. O’dell Owens. “We’ve been listening carefully and we are developing a package of courses that we believe will address the educational and workforce needs of the region. We’re enthused about our partnership with HEP and the city of Middletown.”
    Now that the Cincinnati State deal is signed, Middletown City Manager Judy Gilleland will sign sometime next week the city’s deal with Higher Education Partners, which will sell the former CG&E building for $202,000 and donate the former senior center at Verity and Columbia parkways.
    “Thanks to Dr. O’dell Owens and the Board of Trustees, along with the faculty and staff at Cincinnati State for their dedication to this project. This new campus is a perfect example of a successful public-private partnership,” said Gilleland. “Higher Education Partners came to the table with the capital asset, the city came to the table with the facilities and a lot of community enthusiasm, and Cincinnati State came to the table with the educational and operational aspects.
    “The three partners were able to work in concert with one another to put this deal together. Given the economy today, no one entity, public or private, is able to pull together large-scale deals. These three entities were able to accomplish the mission.” 
    According to the Cincinnati State-Higher Education Partners contract obtained by the Middletown Journal, the initial term of the contract is 20 years, and is set to expire following the 2032 summer semester. The contract allows up to four five-year extension options.
    Interior demolition of the former CG&E building, which includes gutting the first, third and parts of the sixth floors and the basement, is set to begin later this month. Construction is set to begin on May 1 and work is scheduled to be completed by July 15.
    The floors will include classrooms and labs, student services areas (enrollment, advising, counseling, financial aid and study areas), and a few offices, said Cincinnati State spokeswoman Jean Manning.
    According to the unsigned but council-approved city contract with Higher Education Partners, work on the CG&E building and the senior center must be completed by June 1, 2014.
    The contract private/public contract is being dubbed “the first of its kind in the state of Ohio,” according to Cincinnati State officials. Manning said that is why it took a few months for the Ohio Attorney General’s office to review the contract.
    “... will be the first one of several I believe with Higher Education Partners and they’re basically looking at our as the template moving forward,” Manning said.
    Calls to Higher Education Partners were not returned Thursday.
    Ohio Board of Regents Vice Chancellor Gary Cates said he is thrilled with the signed contract.
    “I have two words, hoo-ray,” said the former state senator from Butler County.
     Cates said the deal was consummated in a “relatively short period of time” given how slow government moves.
    When classes begin this fall, Cincinnati State hopes to have at least 200 students attend classes. Manning said programming, which is still being worked out, will included classes in the college’s business technology division, center for innovative technology, humanities and science, and health and public safety; the school will also offer programs and certificates through the Workforce Development Center.
    Details of the programming will be part of the information sessions the college will conduct in the Middletown City Council chambers at One Donham Plaza. The first of the “Get There” sessions, which will include admissions specialists, is set for 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. April 18.
    “For all students and community interested in finding out more about the programs we will be offering and how to apply,” said Manning. “They will occur every first and third Wednesday of the month thereafter.”
    The deal to bring Cincinnati State began in earnest in September 2009 when the late Perry Thatcher, a local businessman and city councilman, invited the college’s resident chef to cook at The Manchester Inn, a building he had owned.
    At a Cincinnati State board of trustees meeting on Oct. 26, 2010, an agreement between the college and city was announced where the city would buy and then sell downtown buildings for a potential branch campus. College officials expressed initial interest in the former CG&E building and the Manchester Inn and Conference Center.
    The city had purchased the former CG&E, Bank One, First National, Masonic Temple buildings in October 2010 for $300,000 and the Manchester Inn in February 2011 for $175,000.
    Greg Pratt, the city-contracted consultant on the project to bring Cincinnati State to the city, said any future discussions about expanding the Middletown campus, which would be considered phase two, may include bringing a culinary school and event center and involve the Manchester Inn.
     The majority of the costs to upgrade the former CG&E building will be bore by Higher Education Partners, according to the contract. The total preliminary budget, which includes buying the building and architectural work, totals nearly $3.07 million. Construction alone, which is to be paid by Higher Education Partners, is budgeted for $1.2 million.
        “It’s huge obviously because it’s going to fill a tremendous void in occupancy in downtown Middletown,” said Bill Triick, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe & Trenton. “I’m excited to see we’re at the point that people are signing documents. That’s another indication of the strong commitment they have to us.”
    The impact Cincinnati State will have on the city and region is difficult to assess at this point, Triick said, “They have told us from the very beginning they want their students to be co-op students,” he said of conversations school officials have had with the chamber. “That helps businesses, that helps the students and that’s a great marriage opportunity.”
    While Triick said they couldn’t guarantee jobs, “we told them we would do everything we could to facilitate their students meeting with local employers to see if there are jobs that can’t be filled while they’re going to school.”
    Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or michael.pitman@coxinc.com. Follow at twitter.com/mdpitman.

“According to the unsigned but council-approved city contract with Higher Education Partners, work on the CG&E building and the senior center must be completed by June 1, 2014.”

The “unsigned but council-approved city contract”???

Exactly when was this contract “council-approved”???  Certainly not at any of the meetings that I watched on TVMiddletown!!!  Did I miss something, or did this action take place in an ILLEGAL city council meeting???

What about this Mr. Landen, Mr. Picard, Mr. J. Mulligan, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Adkins, or any of the other attorneys who may have been involved and who are officers of the court—sworn to uphold the law???

Mike Presta - The “unsigned but council-approved city contract”???
Exactly when was this contract “council-approved”???  Certainly not at any of the meetings that I watched on TVMiddletown!!!  Did I miss something, or did this action take place in an ILLEGAL city council meeting???

Mike
I don’t remember any contract between the City and HEP being brought before City Council Members…or…the 108 CDBG HUD Loan in an unknown amount.

Councilman A.J. Smith, chairman of council’s public safety subcommittee, disagreed. He said the voters will be “die-hard fans” of public safety, those who vote against any tax and the uninformed voters who Smith added can be convinced of the need.

“August is our best chance to get it, a continuing levy would make the most sense,” Smith said.

Cincy State viewed as a partner
Miami U., Cincy State are two of five partners in Greentree Academy.

By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer 10:03 PM Saturday, April 7, 2012

    Cincinnati State Technical & Community College will add to Butler County’s reputation as an educational hub in the region, and not be competitor in the growing industry, local experts say.
    The college announced last week it had signed a contract with Higher Education Partners, meaning a downtown Middletown campus will open in the fall in the former CG&E building. More than 200 students are estimated to enroll the first year.
    Cincinnati State will be the county’s first community college, and Perry Richardson, a spokesman for Miami University’s regional campuses, said the two schools have been partners since they entered into an articulation agreement in 2008.
    “It is an agreement that is intended to improve service to area students. Basically it’s an agreement to collaborate,” said Richardson. “I think the citizens of Butler County can be proud that there are so many (educational) options, and they’re convenient, they’re affordable and they’re high quality.”
    One of the collaborations between the schools helped open in 2011 the Greentree Health Sciences Academy in neighboring Warren County. Other partners in the academy include the city of Middletown, Atrium Medical Center and the Warren County Career Center.
    “This is about collaboration not competition,” Richardson said of Cincinnati State coming to Middletown.
     “What this can do is create a system of student transfers between our systems that can be a seamless and effective as possible.”
    Cincinnati State Academic Vice President Monica Posey said being in the same county as Miami University will enhance that partnership.
    “This will provide more of a chance for our faculty to connect and hopefully develop some programming together,” she said.
    Posey said many students already transfer to Miami University from Cincinnati State.
    “They’re going to start near home and they’re going to finish near home,” she said.
The years of anticipation, and for some impatience, about when Cincinnati State would officially sign the deal to open its downtown campus melted Thursday when school officials announced they had signed a 20-year contract — which has four five-year extension options — with Massachusetts-based Higher Education Partners.
    In the future, Butler County won’t be just an educational hub in the region, but THE educational hub, said state Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp., who represents about half of Middletown.
    “Higher education is kind of a priority in this county,” Derickson said. “Even though (Cincinnati State) is starting out on the small scale, there’s not any reason for any of us to believe it’s going to stay on a small scale. They’re going to grow.”
    Posey said Cincinnati State wants to contribute to that future.
    “We’re moving in that direction and Cincinnati State is happy to be a part of that,” she said.
    Cincinnati State has approximately 10,500 students enrolled per semester at its main campus on Central Parkway in Cincinnat. At least 3,560 students could eventually be at the Middletown campus in the years go come, according to study results conducted by Boston-based Macguire Associates and released last June. Posey said having a few thousand students in Middletown in five years is the school’s target.
    Programming is still being developed for the Middletown branch campus, but Posey said “there will be different opportunities.”
    “We’re going to have a range of different programs, and we’ll have two areas of focus,” she said.
    Those students who intend to transfer to a four-year program, like at Miami, will be offered general education courses, and associate degree programs in technology. Courses will feature online and classroom classes, and hybrid options.
    Posey said the school is also looking toward workforce development “and we’re planning some training opportunities that employes can take advantage of as well as individuals.” One of those opportunities is offering stackable certifications. Ohio Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp., said the signing “represents many more options for citizens of Butler County, which is a great thing,”
    “It’s a different market than Miami University and they’re going to complement each other very well,” Coley said.
    The Cincinnati State deal is also an economic development opportunity for the city.
    Derickson said while teaching and staff jobs be created — though an exact number has not yet been determined — every student will be training for some type of job.
    “That’s what education is all about,” Derickson said. “It’s not only about expanding your knowledge, but it’s about getting a job.”
    Bill Triick, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton, said the community college will “fill a tremendous void.”
    “The educational institution is applying more qualifying graduates to the jobs available because they focused on the jobs available,” said Triick.
    Triick said the chamber has been working with the college to help students be co-op students.
    “We told them we couldn’t guarantee jobs, but we told them we would do everything we could to facilitate their students meeting with local employers to see of there’s jobs that can’t be filled while they’re going to school,” Triick said.
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     Higher Education Partners CEO Michael Perik calls community colleges “the workhorses” of education in the country. He said the student base of any community college is diverse, from students not ready for a four-year school to older students looking for a new career.
    “That’s why we love the community college market,” Perik said, “because it serves such a range and it’s so relevant of what’s going on in our country now.”
    Higher Education Partners first started when Bristol Community College opened its e-Health Careers Institute in southern Massachusetts in 2010. The college started with a few hundred to now more than 2,000 students, Perik said. The Cincinnati State deal will be a template for how many projects will be done in the future, he said.
    “What I’m really excited about is this is not only going to be a terrific educational project, but a terrific economic development project for the city,” said Perik, who added there are other deals in discussion around the state and country. “In this day and age and in this economic environment, it’s difficult to get projects like this done unless you have this tripartite cooperation.”

From MJ: