Technology & Business Center Renovation

Tour group reviews $14.745 million capital bonding request for construction

A tour group representing Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB), the Office of Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota State system office visited the campus of Inver Hills Community College Monday afternoon, September 23, 2019, to review the college’s $14.745 million capital bonding request for construction on the Technology & Business Center Renovation Project.

Tour attendees included Myron Frans, MMB commissioner, Britta Reitan, MMB state budget director, Aara Johnson, policy advisor to Governor Walz, Brian Yolitz, associate vice chancellor for facilities, Minnesota State, and Jennifer Gale, River Heights Chamber of Commerce president. Mayor George Tourville and Community Development Director Heather Rand represented the city of Inver Grove Heights.

Inver Hills representatives included Interim President Michael Berndt, who delivered a project overview to the tour group in Heritage Hall.

“Inver Hills currently serves nearly 6,800 credit students annually,” President Berndt said. “In 2018, we awarded more than 700 degrees and certificates. Our most recent economic impact study for Inver and DCTC estimated a total economic impact of $334.6 million, including 570 employees and 2,881 jobs directly and indirectly supported by these colleges. We are strong partners with our community and support regional economic vitality.”

President Berndt noted that Inver Hills and DCTC are currently celebrating a shared 50th anniversary. “During the year, I have had the opportunity to connect with former alumni and employees,” he said. “Just recently, I gave a tour of our campus to one of Inver’s original faculty. Even though he hadn’t been in the Science and Business & Technology buildings for 47 years, he still knew where he was going and even found his old office. That drove home for me how much our buildings need updates.”

Also representing Inver Hills were Dean of STEM and Social Sciences Stephen Strom, Dean of Liberal Arts Barbara Curchack and Operations Director Paul DeMuth.

“This renovation project takes care of more than 50 percent of deferred maintenance on the Business building,” Director DeMuth said, “including upgrades to the physical plant, roofs and electrical system, which are all past their useful life and make the building very hard to operate. These issues, including water intrusion, are also very large safety concerns.”

In 2018, Inver Hills received $698,000 to fund the project’s design, which focuses on:

Renovating 31,800 square feet of the existing Technology & Business Center (TBC)
- Create 15 flexible-size, technology-adapted classrooms for computer network technologies and security (CNT), Paralegal and Business programs
- Create four specialized CNT classrooms to connect to the CNT Networking Lab
Connecting the TBC and Heritage Hall buildings
Correcting more than $6.536 million in deferred maintenance in the Business building

The tour group also reviewed the college’s HEAPR funding requests, which include:

Priority #1: $2.5 million to replace Activities building roof
Priority #2: $1.9 million to purchase Activities building air handler
Priority #3: $1.8 million to purchase Science building air handler