Santa Fe College Announces Plans for Expanded Blount Center Downtown Gainesville
October 22, 2018
October 22, 2018 – Santa Fe College shared the vision for the new Blount Hall at a neighborhood workshop Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, President Jackson Sasser announced.
The three-story 86,311 square-foot building is expected to be completed in the spring of 2021. The $36.4 million SF Blount Hall will include classrooms, lab suites, business incubation spaces, related student support and service areas, and a second-floor terrace.
"Santa Fe College has made many investments for our students and communities," SF President Sasser said. "None will have a more direct impact than the expansion of the downtown Gainesville campus. The facility will have the same services as the Northwest Campus, such as financial aid and library services. It will be our campus to address specifically the unacceptable poverty rates in East Gainesville. We are grateful for the support of our legislators and local donors."
"There was so much groundwork, dreaming and vision that went into the fruition of what we're seeing at the downtown campus," said SF Board of Directors member Patsy Blount. "I think Charlie [Blount] would be so pleased with the opportunity this will provide for students in an ongoing way for years and years to come. It will have an impact on the community, and I think there will be a synergistic relationship that will impact the college, Gainesville, the University and students.
Blount Hall will be home to SF's Center for Innovation and Economic Development (CIED) incubator companies that will continue to contribute to the local economy and growth.
"With this expansion, the Blount Center will become Santa Fe College's comprehensive center for business and IT education, as well as entrepreneurship," said Ed Bonahue, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at SF. "With the expansion of our business incubator and connections to local startups across the community, the new opportunities for SF students to train and work locally will be tremendous."
The campus will help meet the educational needs of an underserved part of the district and will offer a full array of student services offices needed to serve an increasingly mobile student population seeking employment in an innovated economy.
Additional information, including conceptual renderings, are expected to be available in the spring of 2019.
