Colleges seek URA funds for Cd'A building

COEUR d’ALENE — Urban renewal agency ignite cda is considering a $2.5 million funding request from North Idaho College and two partner universities that want to build a joint student services facility.

As currently envisioned, the building would be two stories and have 40,000 square feet of floor space. It would be located at the corner of Hubbard Avenue and College Drive.

The anticipated project cost is approximately $9.5 million, and the schools want ignite to fill, or at least help fill, a funding gap of $2.5 million.

To be called the North Idaho Collaborative Education Facility, it’s a joint project between NIC, Lewis-Clark State College and the University of Idaho.

It would create a one-stop student services — admissions, financial aid and advising — location for the three schools. There would also be some shared classroom, lecture and lab facilities inside.

Chris Martin, vice president of finance at NIC, recently pitched the idea to ignite as an investment in education and workforce development.

“Currently prospective students are shuffled from around the North Idaho College campus to the Harbor Center to the Molstead Library to Lee-Kildow Hall to the testing center that is located in portable buildings along River Avenue,” Martin said at the November ignite board meeting. “To be frank, we’re not making it easy. And sometimes, at places, we’re duplicating efforts.”

The project has been discussed for a half-dozen years, but has gone through revisions.

“The Collaborative Education Facility is an investment in education and workforce development, to ensure Coeur d’Alene and the North Idaho region has access to higher education and is creating a qualified workforce to meet the needs of our city and our region today and for our future,” Martin said.

NIC is providing the land and will maintain the facility. The schools have combined to commit $2 million for the construction.

The state Permanent Building Fund has agreed to provide $4 million, and the fund’s advisory committee has recommended an additional $1 million for the project, Martin said.

The ignite board decided to bring the funding request back for a decision at this month’s board meeting.

Ignite board commissioner Rob Colwell told the board the Lake District has sufficient funding capacity to meet the funding request.

“It’s like anything we do; it’s just choices on where do you allocate resources,” Colwell said.

“From my perspective, the resources are there,” commission chairman Denny Davis said. “It’s a matter of priorities.”

The tentative project timeline shows a general contractor being selected in March 2017 and building occupancy taking place in August 2018.