Mayor to visit branch campuses in Massachusetts

Mayor, attorney will take a trip to community college sites.

12:44 AM Thursday, October 13, 2011
By Andy Sedlak

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Although city officials have been adamant about signing a deal to begin a Cincinnati State branch campus in Middletown, there is some due diligence to be done.

Mayor Larry Mulligan and attorney Greg Pratt will fly to Massachusetts Oct. 26 to visit Bristol Community College in New Bedford, Mass., and Northern Essex Community College in Lawrence. Both are sites of community college extension projects by Higher Education Partners LLC, the company chosen to develop the Middletown campus.

“We know Cincinnati State has already been out there to do their due diligence,” said Pratt, who has served as a consultant to the city on the Cincinnati State project. “But we’re probably not in a place for Cincinnati State to do their due diligence for us. We have to do it ourselves.”

Plans are moving forward to meet with school officials, each city’s mayor and local business leaders. The two also plan to walk around each city.

“Do we expect to come back with any surprises or changes? No we don’t,” Pratt said. “It’s just one of those things you feel like you have to do to be careful and prudent, and it wouldn’t be wise to go forward without that.”

Although final plans are still being made, the trip is estimated to cost the city about $900 to cover expenses such as flights, hotel accommodations and a rental car. According to City Manager Judy Gilleland, the money will likely come from the city’s downtown improvement fund.

It’s worth the investment, she said.

“I can’t imagine being involved in a multimillion-dollar deal that could potentially affect an entire downtown area and community without physically visiting locations and verifying the work and getting tips from cities who have experienced these sorts of projects,” she said.

Mulligan and Pratt both said they were willing to dip into their own pockets to help cover costs.

“I’m looking to see what I can afford to pay for out of my pocket so the burden isn’t completely on the city,” Mulligan said. “This is something you can’t get over the phone or in an email exchange.”

City hopes to reap successes of Massachusetts college sites

By Andy Sedlak, Staff Writer 11:13 PM Sunday, November 20, 2011

    MIDDLETOWN — Forty-seven new businesses. Three to four coffee shops. “Several” new restaurants over the past five years.
    These things demonstrated positive spin-off activity many say is tied in part to the development of local community college sites in New Bedford, Mass.
    Mayor Larry Mulligan and local attorney Greg Pratt visited New Bedford in late October. The city houses Bristol Community College, where a recent extension project was developed by Boston-based Higher Education Partners LLC. HEP is also responsible for the development of a Cincinnati State Technical and Community College campus in downtown Middletown.
    Those in New Bedford touted the influence their campus has had on the city.
    “We saw the finished product,” Mulligan said. “And it was impressive.”
    Mulligan’s trip was ahead of a finalized deal that, according to Cincinnati State officials, is in sight. Jean Manning, vice president of marketing and communications, said attorneys have agreed to a final contract, which has been forwarded to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for further review.
    “Most everything has been agreed to ... We’re trying to move quickly,” she said.
    The goal is to have a finished contract in time for the regularly scheduled board of trustees meeting on Tuesday.
    “We’re anxious,” Manning said.
    Mulligan said the trip to Massachusetts served as a form of due diligence. He and Pratt flew out Oct. 26 and returned the next day, visiting HEP sites in New Bedford and Lawrence, Mass.
    Lawrence’s HEP extension to Northern Essex Community College was brand new, just opening this year. It enrolls about 150 students.
    But BCC officials see the HEP-overseen extension that opened in 2010 as an enrollment boost to a city whose revitalization is tied to educational institutions. Classes began in New Bedford about 10 years ago and roughly 1,600 students are currently enrolled in the city’s BCC programs, according to Milton Clement, the college’s acting registrar.
    This includes between 300 and 400 at HEP’s building. Upon its opening last year, it enrolled about 140.
    “We’ve grown enormously,” Clements said.
    Mulligan and Pratt met with city and college representative at these sites.
    Diane Arsenault, executive director of Downtown New Bedford, Inc., a private nonprofit that works closely with the city in economic matters downtown, met with Mulligan and Pratt during their trip.
    Over lunch, Arsenault spoke with the two about New Bedford’s resurgence.
    In an interview with the Journal, she said attracting college campuses — aside from BCC, the city also holds a University of Massachusetts satellite campus for visual arts students — was central to revitalization plans.
    “The economic development office put the schools as a high priority in the turn around,” she said. “The colleges are part of what attracts business ... We’ve had Bristol Community College here for a few years and they keep building and expanding.”
    The city has seen an increase in retail shops, offices and art galleries. A number of buildings have been renovated into upscale loft apartments, she said.

But 10 years ago, downtown New Bedford was “deserted” after business hours and slow on weekends.
    The schools were key, but Arsenault attributes “many pieces” to New Bedford’s turnaround. For one, the southern Massachusetts city — its population of about 100,000 people is roughly twice as big as Middletown — gets boating traffic from the Boston area and Cape Cod.
    “It took them four or five years or more to do it, but (educational branches) were part of it,” Mulligan said. “(Efforts) were not strictly tied to the college, but really, were the combined efforts we’re talking about of generating additional activity and interest downtown.”
    Councilman A.J. Smith said the mayor’s trip was “certainly worth the time.”
    “In this situation, I totally trust the mayor’s judgment,” he said.
    Cincinnati State officials have said the goal is to enroll between 200 and 400 students in the Middletown campus’ first year of operation and as many as 3,000 in five years.
    The city acquired the former Masonic Temple, First National Bank, former CG&E and Bank One buildings in December 2010 to secure their use for a Cincinnati State branch campus. The Manchester Inn was acquired in March. The city paid more than $400,000 for all the buildings.
    Plans are for the school to move into the former CG&E and senior center buildings in time for classes to being next fall. Further usage would be based on enrollment figures.
    Contact this reporter at 
(513) 705-2871 or Andrew
.Sedlak@coxinc.com.

TonyB…

The Studio Theater is to far away from what the City has established as the Art’s Core District and I have been told it has extensive damage to the interior.
The Sorg Opera House, while historic it is not very appealing because all the other old buildings around it have been removed. Then we have the interior…it would take 10 years, an army of volunteers and millions of dollars to restore this building. Sad but true.
The old Paramont Theater was in the perfect location for your plan..


If these were such great investment properties…where were the buyers with all the big bucks over the past 20 years? It is true that the City could loan some money for this project at a special rate to an investor. The investor may be able to get a special loan from the State Historic Society and get tax credits but at some point the loans would need to be repaid. Do you really believe that the current population of Middletown would fill this business 5 days a week?

You are correct on one point…the City does not have a clear vision on what they want or need downtown…and we the tax payer will continue to pay the price for their mistakes.