SFCC Gets Green Light to Build $10M Higher Education Center

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

Santa Fe Community College has received approval from the New Mexico Higher Education Department to build a $9.8 million, 31,000 square-foot higher education facility. Construction will start later this spring, according to college officials.

The approval to build the facility marks the end to a three-year quest to develop the higher education facility. According to Ana “Cha” Guzmán, president of the College, SFCC will initially use the first floor of the building, meaning about 15,000 square feet of space. Guzmán added that some existing SFCC programs will relocate to the facility once it is completed, and it will also host classes by university partners.

The new building will be located on land formerly owned by the College of Santa Fe, at 1600 St. Michaels Drive, which will be especially convenient for the downtown community, according to a news release by SFCC.

Meanwhile, Inland Kenworth Inc. will relocate to a new $7 million facility that will be built at the Interstate 40 and Unser interchange, as Albuquerque Journal reported. The seven-acre site was bought several years ago, and the company had put the project on hold during the recession. The firm, which commercializes Kenworth trucks, announced that it would open the 30,000-square-foot facility in the fall of 2013.

Kenworth will move its Albuquerque operation, employing about 40 people, from the North I-25 corridor, where it has owned a facility for years. Inland Kenworth’s U.S. division currently has five locations, with two more planned in Arizona and California, according to the Albuquerque publication.

Architect’s rendering of the Higher Education Center Building, courtesy of hec.sfcc.edu

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