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Buena Vista is applying for a $930,000 Industrial Revitalization Funds grant to go toward construction of Mountain Gateway Community College’s Wilson Workforce Center.
City Council this past Thursday authorized City Manager Jason Tyree to apply for the grant after hearing an update on the project from Tom Roberts, the city’s director of community and economic development.
Roberts told Council that the city was unsuc-
, page B9 cessful with its application for a $1 million Community Development Block Grant for the project. “We pivoted and are applying for a different grant” – the IRF grant, he said.
He reported that work has begun on transforming the former Courtesy Ford property on Forest Avenue into the workforce center. The first phase of the construction project includes hazardous materials abatement and roof replacement.
The adjacent McCormick building was renovated earlier and classes began there this fall.
When the $5.5 million workforce training center is completed, it will expand MGCC’s capacity to offer training in trades such as heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), electrical and plumbing, diesel mechanic, machine tool, welding, building trades and commercial driver’s license (CDL.) The center is named for Buena Vista native and Parry McCluer High School and Washington and Lee University alumnus Joe Wilson, a successful businessman and philanthropist who made the purchase of the property for the project possible.
To date, $4.9 million has been raised for construction of the workforce center. Funding raised thus far includes a federal grant of $3.1 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration., $128,220 from individual donors, $680,000 from foundation donors, $750,000 in state grants and $155,365 in support from the local governments.
A vacant tract of land off of Magnolia Avenue and Ninth Street that the city donated to then-Dabney S. Lancaster Community College in 2020 for the purpose of the proceeds benefiting the workforce center has been sold. Roberts said the new owner of the land is making plans for a multi-housing residential project. He anticipates that a rezoning request for the property will be coming before the Planning Commission in the next few months.
