FVCC plans campus expansion

Flathead Valley Community College announced plans Monday for two major campus expansion projects to take place over the next two years as the college launches its new ONE Campaign.

The campaign consists of two phases — the design and construction of a library and learning commons and a college center.

Phase one will add a 12,000-square-foot library to the current Rebecca Chaney Broussard Center for Nursing and Health Science, an expansion that the building’s main funder, Jerome Broussard, said was envisioned when the center was first built in 2011.

Construction of the $3 million library is scheduled to begin in May, with the design and fundraising for the project complete following a $2.5 million donation from the Broussard family made in the fall of 2017.

“I knew this was part of a bigger campaign,” Broussard said. “It’s really completing what was started in 2011.”

The finished facility will feature a library with “leading-edge technologies,” group and concentrated study spaces, a lounge area/coffee bar, a medical library, multi-media services, a virtual reality lab and support areas for library staff.

A grand opening is scheduled for January of 2019.

The second phase of the project includes the construction of a $15 million college center complete with a performance and lecture hall and multi-purpose activity center.

The finished center will stand between the Arts and Technology building and the Early Childhood Center, requiring no further land purchase by the college prior to construction.

The 50,000-square-foot college center will house a large performance hall with rehearsal and classroom space, a green room, a box office, a lobby/art gallery, and an outdoor amphitheater as well as a multi-purpose activity center complete with a two-court gymnasium, an indoor track, fitness space, intramural sports program offices, a kitchen/snack bar and locker rooms.

So far, the college has raised approximately $2.6 million of the center’s total cost. FVCC President Jane Karas said the college will continue fundraising through March of 2019, with construction scheduled to begin in spring of 2019 and opening scheduled for fall of 2020.

Both projects are funded through a combination of private gifts and revenue bonds.

Plans for both facilities, which began about six months ago, according to Karas, include access for FVCC students, faculty and staff as well as members of the community.

Over 500 FVCC students currently participate in intramural activities that take place in gymnasiums across the valley, according to FVCC ONE Campaign Co-Chair Justin Sliter.

“The demand for activity centers valleywide exceeds the available space. Our largest venues are continuously bursting at the seams when we host renowned speakers and musicians,” Sliter said. “This venue will create an opportunity to host our largest events and invite the Flathead community to our beautiful campus.”

FVCC also partnered with Glacier Symphony for the project, and upon its completion the Glacier Symphony will make its new home in the college center performance hall.

Karas expressed a hope that the college center will provide a venue capable of hosting large events, allowing the college to offer more opportunities to students and the community while bringing in new sources of revenue that will help support the center’s operations.

Phase one of the project will enter the permitting process, according to Karas, followed by the opening of bidding for the project this spring.

Designs for phase two have not yet been finalized.

For more information about the ONE Campaign or to make a donation, contact FVCC Foundation Executive Director Colleen Unterreiner at (406)756-3914 or colleenu@fvcc.edu.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.