Technology & Business Center Renovation Tour

Tour group reviews $14.653 million capital bonding request for construction

A tour group representing the Minnesota House of Representatives Capital Investment Division, the Governor’s Policy Advisor Office, Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB), and the Minnesota State system office visited the campus of Inver Hills Community College Thursday morning, November 14, 2019, to review the college’s $14.653 million capital bonding request for construction on the Technology & Business Center Renovation Project.

Tour attendees from the House of Representatives included:

Committee Chair Representative Mary Murphy
Vice Chair Representative Fue Lee
Representative Rick Hansen
Representative Leon Lillie
Representative Samantha Vang

Also in attendance were Dawn Erlandson, Minnesota State Board trustee, Brian Yolitz, Minnesota State associate vice chancellor for facilities, Greg Ewig, Minnesota State system director of capital development, Heather Rand, Inver Grove Heights community development director, and Wes Beedon, Key Community Bank senior vice president, representing the River Heights Chamber of Commerce.

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. “Our Technology and Business Center is one of three buildings original to the college,” he said. “Unfortunately, many elements of this building still radiate the 1970s.”

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.”

Technology and Business Center Renovation Tour gallery

View more event photos by visiting the Inver Hills Flickr album:

Technology & Business Center Renovation Tour

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